Good link for people looking at Florida.

[bhamlet08]

Thanks to some great post from Lawdog 1971 and Utah I have begun my search to relocate to Florida. Here is one of the links I found that may help some others. I am going to start researching these colleges and see which one I like best.

Any recommendations?

[Utah]

If your talking about the academy's i think they are pretty much all the same curriculum. It just depends on the instructors really and their attitudes.

I hear that St. Pete is a pretty good one. Tampa is ok, its where i went. I hear that recently they have cut back on the physical work alot and focused more on classroom stuff with the academies. Thats all i can say about that.

It just depends really on where your looking to live and settle down.

[lawdog1971]

Was a link supposed to be attached?

Utah is correct about the curriculums. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement uses a curriculum which has been standardized throughout the state, so theoretically, someone in a 10-man agency in the panhandle is learning the same thing as someone working for Miami-Dade.

I went to the Institute of Public Safety at Broward Community College which I know is highly regarded. All of the agencies in Broward County and several in Palm Beach County and Miami-Dade County send their recruits there. Unfortunately, I don't know too much about the other academies.

[sureshot015]

FDLE has actually gone to the point of scripting the academy, so that basically an English teacher could run the class. That isnt going to happen since you need a seasoned officer to beable to answer questions, but as everyone else said, it is a step to standardize things across the board. So that you could go to an academy in south florida, then go to work for an agency in north florida, and have all of the same knowlege that you would have gained from a north florida academy. Hope that makes sense. Basically what it has made for are some really boring classes.

[Larry's Angel]

Everything said thus far is true. FDLE has standardized the curriculum. What the instructors teach from and the exams that are given are FDLE mandated. The Academy coordinators have a bank of test questions that they choose questions from for each exam... and I don't think they're given a huge bank to choose from. The curriculum is broken into blocks: Human Diversity, Firearms, Defensive Tactics, etc. The curriculum is also supposed to be more "scenario-based" now, but I don't know if that's really worked out well. The curriculum is still in the works and being updated though... so every year it will get better. I have faith. :D

Regardless of that I think the Academies still vary slightly because of instructors and such. Some academies are regarded much higher by a lot of agencies in Florida because they're considered tougher. I know that the one that I went to is highly regarded and the 2 in the same area (north central Florida) are less respected. A lot of agencies recruiters jump when they hear the name of the Academy that I attended and then consistently call the graduates, but that's just from what I've heard from some fellow classmates.

If I were you I'd just find an area I'd want to live and go from there.

[Tagman]

Anyone know how the PT is in the hillsborough community college LE academy?

[bhamlet08]

Do the colleges have a PT regiment?

[Tagman]

Do the colleges have a PT regiment?


I'm sure they have SOMEthing, no? I'm out of state, so I don't know for sure. I couldn't imagine a LE academy not having ANY type of PT....

Maybe someone in the know can shed some light?

[Larry's Angel]

They're all different... it depends on the instructors you get... when you're taking the class... it really really varies.

I don't know about everywhere else but the academy I went to most of our instructors were sergeants, training coordinators, or retired LE... we didn't have set instructors except for the DT instructor and there's a rangemaster for the firearms range but he wasn't our instructor either. Sorry that's not much help at all.

[lawdog1971]

Every academy I know of in FL has some form of PT, unless you're doing an equivalency training for out-of-staters. But if you're doing the basic academy, you can pretty much bank on the whole push-up, running, et al routine.

[Utah]

Anyone know how the PT is in the hillsborough community college LE academy?

The PT is pretty easy. Running in the dead heat of summer on blacktop with no shade is what will get ya. Other then that push ups, sit ups all that fun stuff is not too bad if your in ok shape.

The DT can be pretty rough at times. The instructor (well he was when i was there) is really good at teaching but he is very badass. In the end you have to fight him one on one and then him and another one on two.

Good luck.

[Tagman]

The PT is pretty easy. Running in the dead heat of summer on blacktop with no shade is what will get ya. Other then that push ups, sit ups all that fun stuff is not too bad if your in ok shape.

The DT can be pretty rough at times. The instructor (well he was when i was there) is really good at teaching but he is very badass. In the end you have to fight him one on one and then him and another one on two.

Good luck.

I figured there had to be some sort of PT. I'm going to the June 27 class at HCC. I'm in decent shape now, but I was hoping to get a more specific answer from anyone who had gone thru the academy at HCC, as I'd like to start focusing my workouts on areas directly related to the academy. Thanks anyway. :cool:

[Utah]

I went to the academy at HCC. The PT consists of a block of about 2 weeks straight. Running, push ups, sit ups, sprints, cycle workouts on the machines in the gym. Mostly just endurance type workouts., nothing too physical with weights really. I hope thats a little more specific., any more specific youll have to see for yourself.

[Tagman]

I went to the academy at HCC. The PT consists of a block of about 2 weeks straight. Running, push ups, sit ups, sprints, cycle workouts on the machines in the gym. Mostly just endurance type workouts., nothing too physical with weights really. I hope thats a little more specific., any more specific youll have to see for yourself.


That's plenty of info. Thanks a lot. Take care and be safe! :cool: