Hillsborough Police ACademy

[PearlEclipse88]

Has anyone attended the Police ACademy at HCC in Tampa.Im looking to go there and just wanted to know how good it was?

[BP348]

I'm interested as well. Many years ago I was stationed in Tampa and was going to attend this academy. Also did everything I needed to do to become a reserve Deputy but never got to do the work.

[1depd]

From what I heard, the instruction is mandated exactly by the state, which means you will receive the exact information presented in the same manner from every academy in the state. I went to one training class after they changed teaching methods and it was very boring. The instructors basically read off a powerpoint presentation. From what my co-workers said, it sounded like it was the same in all of the state courses.

Urban legend: There were two instructors at my academy, who were letting the students have long breaks and were deviating from the provided material. In one class, Tallahassee sent some people to evaluate the college saying they were from Naples, I believe. The undercover people told the school if they continued to allow their instructors to deviate from the provided instruction and allow long breaks they would lose their ability to conduct training and academies. The end result was the two instructors were fired and the college was placed on probation.

Since I'm not intimately familier with the school I can not say if this really happened, I just know the classes were very boring after I heard the rumor.

[DeltaV]

Urban legend: There were two instructors at my academy, who were letting the students have long breaks and were deviating from the provided material. In one class, Tallahassee sent some people to evaluate the college saying they were from Naples, I believe. The undercover people told the school if they continued to allow their instructors to deviate from the provided instruction and allow long breaks they would lose their ability to conduct training and academies. The end result was the two instructors were fired and the college was placed on probation.

I can't say whether or not that specific incident is true, however it's something that does happen down here with the new CMS curriculum. FDLE does send auditors out the the schools, and if they observe something that they don't like, they can yank the school's certification as an academy. I've heard of several academies getting put on probationary status and other instructors getting their instructor certifications revoked by FDLE.

As to the Hillsborough academy, it's going to have the same CMS curriculum as everyplace else. When I went through, PT was non-existant except during defensive tactics training. The only major difference between the academy and regular college classes is mainly that you're wearing a uniform. I heard that they got a new director who is a retired Marine and is making things a little more structured, actually holding inspections, handing out demerits, and basically doing things how they should have been done in the first place. When I went through, everything was extremely lax and casual. Also, HCC in general is probably the most disorganized college that I've ever had contact with. I still take advanced training classes at HCC and it never amazes me that they lose paperwork, forget to send documentation to FDLE, or find other ways to screw something up.

As to how "good" it is? None of the agencies around here care where you went to the academy, only that you have your certification. If you're going to be paying for it yourself, I'd go to the cheapest place available.