FLETC’s Office of State and Local Training celebrates its 25th Anniversary

The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) celebrated its 25th anniversary of providing state and local law enforcement training April 16 with a banquet at the Jekyll Island Club Hotel in Southeast Georgia.

The keynote speaker was Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary for State and Local Law Enforcement Ted Sexton. Assistant Secretary Sexton was recently appointed by DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff as DHS' first Assistant Secretary for State and Local Law Enforcement. The Assistant Secretary noted the department’s recognition of the importance of having state, local, campus, and tribal law enforcement represented to keep our homeland protected. He then recognized the FLETC’s contribution of offering low cost and no cost state and local training to over 800,000 law enforcement professionals.

In 1982, President Ronald Reagan established the National Center for State and Local Law Enforcement Training at the FLETC’s Glynco site. The office, currently known as the Office of State and Local Training (OSL), provides advanced and specialized training for state, local, campus and tribal law enforcement professionals. Subject matter experts develop training that is economical, accessible, and of the highest quality utilizing the latest training techniques. The training is a cooperative effort utilizing course developers and instructors from federal, state and local agencies. Programs are not only offered at the FLETC facilities, but are exported to sites throughout the United States and U.S. Territories.

During the banquet, FLETC Director Connie Patrick commended the OSL for offering programs that are especially important to the many small town and rural law enforcement departments. Many of these have staffs consisting of less than 50 sworn officers, which represent 91 percent of the law enforcement agencies in the United States.

The banquet was held in conjunction with the FLETC’s State and Local Training Advisory Committee’s bi-annual meeting. The Advisory Committee advises the FLETC on matters relating to the selection, development, content and delivery of training services by the Office of State and Local Training, FLETC, to its state, local, campus, and tribal law enforcement customers. The committee membership consists of Federal agencies that work closely with State, local, campus, and tribal law enforcement agencies; representatives from State, local, and tribal law enforcement, as well as their national organizations; and academia.

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