Federal Law Enforcement Training Center

The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) serves as an interagency law enforcement training organization for 82 United States Government Federal Law Enforcement agencies.

Location
The Center is headquartered at Glynco, Georgia (a contraction of the words Glynn County, Georgia), near the port city of Brunswick, Georgia, about halfway between Savannah, Georgia, and Jacksonville, Florida. In addition to Glynco, FLETC operates two other residential training sites in Artesia, New Mexico and Charleston, South Carolina. FLETC also operates an in-service re-qualification training facility in Cheltenham, Maryland for use by agencies with large concentrations of personnel in the Washington, D.C. area. FLETC has oversight and program management responsibility for the International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) in Gaborone, Botswana; San Salvador, El Salvador; and Lima, Peru. FLETC also supports training at other ILEAs in Hungary and Thailand. FLETC was built on a former United States Navy air station. Prior to 1970, the quality of training received by Federal law enforcement officers and agents varied greatly from agency to agency. Standardized training was an unexplored concept, and inadequate facilities and duplication of effort were prevalent as each agency independently trained its own personnel. The four most significant Federal law enforcement agencies not aligned with FLETC are the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

History
Studies conducted in the late 1960s revealed an urgent need for high-quality, cost-effective training by a cadre of professional instructors using modern training facilities and standardized course content. Congress responded by authorizing funds for planning and constructing the Consolidated Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (CFLETC). In 1970, the CFLETC was established as a bureau of the Department of the Treasury (Treasury Order #217) and began training operations in temporary facilities in Washington, D.C.

The permanent location of the training center was originally planned for the Washington, D.C., area. However, a three-year construction delay resulted in Congress requesting that surplus Federal installations be surveyed to determine if one could serve as the permanent site. In May 1975, after an extensive review of existing facilities, the former Naval Air Station Glynco near Brunswick, Georgia, was selected. In the summer of 1975, the newly renamed Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) relocated from Washington, D.C., and began training in September of that year at Glynco. Glynco is the headquarters site and main campus for the FLETC and houses the senior leadership of the organization.

On March 1, 2003, FLETC formally transferred from the Treasury Department to the newly created Department of Homeland Security (DHS), along with some 22 other federal agencies and entities. The move reflected the centrality of the FLETC's mission in support of the unified homeland security effort, which was expanded following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. It was originally housed under the erstwhile Border and Transportation Security Directorate but was reorganized under Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff to become a directly reporting executive agency to the DHS Secretary.

In 2004, federal probation and pretrial services officers began conducting their initial certification, firearms and defensive tactics training at FLETC. In late 2004, they began training their defensive tactics and firearms instructors at FLETC.

Role
Expert training and technology-based distributed learning are increasingly important methods of training delivery. These methods are used when the programs being taught do not require specialized facilities and/or when a geographical concentration of personnel can be identified. Additionally, the FLETC seeks and develops alternative training technologies, especially simulation and modeling to augment existing training delivery systems and methodologies.

Limited export training is conducted at other locations. This delivery method is used when the programs being conducted do not require the use of certain specialized facilities and when a geographical concentration of personnel can be identified.

Many of the FLETC's 82 Partner Organizations have transferred portions or all of their law enforcement training operations to one of the FLETC's permanent sites to coordinate the activities of their personnel and to conduct advanced and agency-specific programs.

Consolidation of law enforcement training permits the Federal Government to emphasize training excellence and cost-effectiveness. Professional instruction and practical application provide students with the skills and knowledge to meet the demanding challenges of a Federal law enforcement career. They learn not only the responsibilities of a law enforcement officer, but through interaction with students from many other agencies, they also become acquainted with the missions and duties of their colleagues. This interaction provides the foundation for a more cooperative Federal law enforcement effort.

Parent agency and partners
The Center's parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), supervises its administrative and financial activities.

As an interagency training organization, FLETC has assembled some of the finest professionals from diverse backgrounds to serve on its faculty and staff. Approximately one-third of the instructor staff are permanent FLETC employees. The remainder are Federal officers and investigators on short-term assignment from their parent organizations or recently retired from the field. This mix of permanent, detailed, and recently retired staff provides a balance of experience and fresh insight from the field.

Partner Organizations have input regarding training issues and functional aspects of the Center. Agencies take part in curriculum review and development conferences and help develop policies and directives. This relationship is characteristic of a "true partnership", responsive to the training mission.

Since its inception in 1970, FLETC has invested heavily in renovation, expansion, acquisition, and new construction to meet the ever increasing training needs of its Partner Organizations. This effort gained considerable momentum following a series of congressional mandates in the 1990s. Impetus was again added following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.