The Federal Law Enforcement Training Accreditation (FLETA) Board ispleased to announce it granted initial program accreditation status tothe Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Law Enforcement TrainingCenter’s (LETC) Basic Police Officer Course at the July 11, 2013 Boardmeeting in Brunswick, Georgia.
The VA Basic Police Officer Course (BOPC) is a 320-hour trainingprogram designed to provide duly appointed VA Police Officers with aspecialized orientation to agency law enforcement policies andprocedures. Students are trained in the proper exercise offederal statutory law enforcement authority and specialized skills insituations involving patients or persons of diminished capacity. This course is designed to provide police officers with the knowledge,skills, and abilities to blend their duties as law enforcement officerswith the special needs of the public they serve.
The LETC provides training for approximately 2000 federal policeofficers annually. The LETC is located on the Central Arkansas VeteransHealthcare System’s (CAVHS) North Little Rock Campus. The sitewas chosen because of its central location and because it offered amedical center setting where VA police officers could study and learnin the same environment that they worked.
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.