The Federal Law Enforcement Training Accreditation (FLETA) Board ispleased to announce it granted initial accreditation status to the U.S.Marine Corps Police Academy (MCPA) Basic Police Officer Course at theApril 25, 2013 meeting in Brunswick, Georgia. This is the first U.S.Marine Corps program to achieve FLETA accreditation.
Launched in March 2008, the MCPA was conducted at Camp Johnson,North Carolina (currently known as MCPA-East). In February 2009,MCPA-West, located aboard MCAS Miramar, was added and conducted itsfirst course. The curriculum for the basic police course wasdeveloped in accordance with the Department of Defense Minimum TrainingStandards for Civilian Police and includes 13 functional areas of basiclaw enforcement training.
The MCPA curriculum undergoes continuous review and revision to stayabreast of training needs and standards. Growth in class compositionfrom 20 to 30 students now includes military policemen (both garrisonand operating forces). Since the inception of the Basic PoliceProgram, the two academies have trained more than 1,000 graduates,consisting of both civilian and military police.
The FLETA Board is the accrediting body for all federal lawenforcement training and support programs. To achieve accreditation,agencies submit to an independent review of their academy and/orprogram to ensure compliance with the FLETA Standards and Procedures in the areas of: Program Administration, Training Staff, TrainingDevelopment, and Training Delivery, with an additional 20 standards forAcademies. Accreditation is a cyclical process occurring every threeyears. Each year, agencies must submit annual reports in preparationfor reaccreditation, which is a new and independent review of theacademy/program.