ACADEMY TRAINEE DEMOGRAPHICS AND CORE CURRICULUM INFLUENCES ON SUCCESS RATES IN LAW ENFORCEMENT BASIC TRAINING ACADEMIES ACROSS STATE AND LOCAL ACADEMIES IN THE UNITED STATES

The demand for police officers is perpetually high throughout the United States. Agencies are constantly holding career fairs on high school and college campuses or in the community. Although police departments attempt to recruit the healthiest and strongest individuals, they may be leaving out a sizable portion of the population (White, 2008). The recruitment process in law enforcement careers is lacking in targeting women, which can influence women’s perceptions of pursuing a career in law enforcement (Rossler et al., 2020). Women who enter a male-dominated career, such as law enforcement, may experience barriers in the recruitment process, the academy, and when appointed to an agency. Gender can be a primary barrier in completing the basic law enforcement training academy. However, the curriculum environment can be an additional factor in a trainee's successful completion of basic training. Some examples are, training environments (stress or non-stress models), training subject areas, and disciplinary codes. Therefore, this research will discuss recruit completion rates in the basic training academy based on trainee gender and curriculum environments. This study is based on the 2018 Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Training Academies survey (CLETA 2018).