The Federal Law Enforcement Training Accreditation (FLETA) Board ispleased to announce it granted reaccreditation status to the InternalRevenue Service’s (IRS) National Criminal Investigation TrainingAcademy, Special Agent Basic Training Program, and Basic InstructorFacilitator Training Program at the April 25, 2013 meeting inBrunswick, Georgia.
In support of the overall Internal Revenue Service and CriminalInvestigation missions, the National Criminal Investigation TrainingAcademy (NCITA) is dedicated to fostering the highest levels ofprofessionalism and ethical behavior throughout the criminalinvestigation workforce. The primary focus is in training newspecial agents in the fundamentals of financial investigations,including elements of tax offenses, methods of proof unique to federaltax investigations, and all of the requisite knowledge, skills, andabilities to be federal law enforcement's finest financialinvestigators.
There are two sections within the Academy. Advanced Trainingencompasses instructor training programs, use of force trainingprograms, non-1811 training programs, accreditation, Internal RevenueManual, and e-learning. Basic Training handles Special Agent BasicTraining, which is entry level training for special agents, on-the-jobinstructor training, and recruitment and mentoring.
The Special Agent Basic Training program consists of pre-basic,followed by criminal investigator training instructed by the staff of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. The final phase oftraining, which currently lasts about 14 weeks, is special agentinvestigative techniques. During this phase, agents acquire thespecific knowledge and practice the techniques which allow them tobecome criminal investigators.
The Basic Instructor Facilitator Training (BIFT) program preparesemployees for initial certification as instructors. The programincorporates the principles of adult learning with an emphasis onstudent-centered learning. The goal of student-centered learningis to strengthen the problem-solving skills and critical thinkingtechniques of individuals completing any training program sponsored bythe academy. The goal of the instructor team is to engage theparticipants in a variety of activities, exercises, conversations, anddiscussions that challenge the traditional way of seeing problems andapplying solutions. Numerous courses in education and trainingprinciples are presented to prepare instructors to conduct qualitytraining.
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.