Police Officer Preparation & Law Enforcement Resource - Archive

I was wondering if anyone here has attended the Pat Thomas Law Enforcement Academy in Tallahassee? Just wondering if they could give me a few pointers or anything.

I think the same thing probably applies to all academies around the board. Try to stay under the radar, study, don't blow off the tests and also don't overanalyze your curriculum. Don't focus TOO much on the CMS objectives, you've been in college a few years, you should be well-versed on how to recognize what's important to know and what's not. Mentality is a big factor as far as the high liabilities go and you'll get all of that over the way in the first half of class. DT sucks the first week but after that it's pretty much business. They'll try to scare you the first week and if depending on who your instructors are for DT about 6 kids will inevitably throw up the first day.

I was surprised to learn there wasn't much physical training involved at Pat Thomas. (No running, courses,) Is DT that tough at other places or just keeping stamina?

I can't speak for all the academies because I only went to one, but I think that since FDLE started regulating all the academies and CMS has taken over, everything is scheduled out already. Therefore, unless an academy decides to extend their class length and add a month a few weeks onto it a days work is whatever CMS says it is and CMS doesn't have PT in it, therefore, you'll be expected to take care of yourself in that regard. They'll probably give you suggestions on your first day of class to get ready for DT though. You'll understand when you get into it. The instructors are pretty limited as to what they can do... and you'll probably hear a lot of complaining from them about it too. In DT you'll hear a lot of "well, the for class and test purposes... the CMS way is this... but for real life..."

Is DT tough? Basicly having stamina and learning new things? What all is learned?