Was reading what the curriculum covers in the Washington Law Enforcement Academy.

Training there covers essentially 10 elemets and takes 720 hours. Everything from criminal law (including all the misdemeanors too), traffic enforcement, interacting with the public, firearms, high speed driving , etd. Considering how many laws there are that police officers have to deal with, that portion could well eat up the majority of the 720 hours. That leaves darn little time for teaching officers safe firearm handling, stress management, de-escalation, etc, etc.

Couple the short amount of time and the huge amount of territory to cover it's probably assumed that the sponsoring agency will finish the officers training in the field. That can be good and bad. On the bad side it just perpetuates bad practices as FTO's indoctrinate the FNG's in the department culture. It also causes departments short on manpower to put the marginally trained officers in positions they are not prepared for.

On the good side? Hard to find any good in the above. If you ask the Officers what's needed they (and their Union) will merely answer "More Pay". Ask management what is needed and they say "we'll get back to you".

Personally I think there needs to be a change in the recruiting model and take it out to the schools, starting the process just like the Pro Sports Teams do. Find young people with an aptitude for dealing with people. Create MORE cadet programs. Do some of the basic training such as Laws and Regulations, Physical fitness, etc, in educational institutions just like is now done in nursing training. Then turn the "Academy" into a finishing school for those who have already had more than 720 hours of training in basic police work. Put the finishing touch on their knowledge of the law, their driving and firearm skills, and most important of all, how to de-escalate. Since the process began long ago in high-school and/or college, they will be training better candidates to start with.

The issue of pay is something for the local authority to decide but to meet accreditation standards that will just be a pill they have to swallow.

Last but not least, remove (by legislation) the shield that collective bargaining seems to have erected around bad officers. Just like any private job fuck-up, keep screwing up and you're unemployed.

It has not changed much from when I started in 1966. The FTO program was new but it still went like Here is the desk, car and phone, here is your gun you're on your own.
The teach by example works well when the teacher is a good example.