Idaho Peace Officer Standards and Training Academy receives Award of Excellence
BOISE, Idaho (KIFI) - The Idaho Peace Officers Standards and Training (POST) Academy received accreditation status by the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training (IADLEST) on Thursday.
The award was presented by IADLEST Executive Director Mike Becar at the quarterly Idaho POST Council meeting.
In 2021, assigned assessors from IADLEST conducted a web-based assessment reviewing all of POST's policies and procedures. In March of 2022, a second assessment team spent two days on-site at the POST Academy campus, reviewing the agency's compliance with nationally established IADLEST standards. The assessors inspected the POST Academy; interviewed employees, instructors, and students; and viewed actual training in the high liability topics of firearms, emergency vehicle operation and defensive tactics to determine that the POST Academy met the requirements of a highly regarded law enforcement training organization. The assessors found that indeed POST was compliant with all these standards and was successfully accredited for the first time in POST's history. Notably, POST received IADLEST's highest Academy accreditation score awarded to date and achieved their highest Award of Excellence designation.
The purpose of the IADLEST Law Enforcement Academy Accreditation Program is to evaluate and improve the operational viability of academies by sharing and recommending industry best practices. Accreditation is a voluntary process. Attaining an accredited status is a significant accomplishment for the members of the agency, but more importantly, it denotes the quality of service the academy provides the law enforcement community and the citizens it serves. To receive accreditation, candidate academies must maintain policies that are consistent with the 54 IADLEST Academy standards. During an assessment, the academies present "proofs of compliance" which demonstrate the academy's practices in accordance with these policies.
Ultimately, the biggest beneficiaries of having an accredited academy are the officers themselves and the communities they serve. The officer benefits by receiving quality, targeted training that prepares the officer to be successful in the officer's career and in the community. The community benefits by being assured its officers have been trained to the highest levels with training that utilizes model practices and standards and has been developed with community expectations and the police mission as the foundation.
"I am tremendously proud of the way our staff worked together as a team to achieve this recognition," POST Administrator Brad Johnson said. "For us, it was fortunately more a matter of documenting and demonstrating the high standards that Idaho POST models, rather than an effort to establish substantially new policy and practice. Achieving the IADLEST Award of Excellence demonstrates that POST is a national leader in our profession and marks a significant milestone in our Relentless Pursuit of Excellence."
Although the accreditation process is arduous, the benefits of accreditation are well-known. Primarily, accreditation serves to demonstrate adherence to national standards, add defensibility via an objective and thorough certification process, comply with statewide standards and practices, increase marketability due to validation of high caliber training and practices, and enhance implementation of best practices. The result of this process proves to POST's stakeholder agencies and the citizens of Idaho that the POST Academy is committed to serving in the most professional and competent manner. The Idaho POST Academy will maintain an accredited status until June of 2025, at which time it will again be assessed to ensure compliance and to see re-accreditation.
