What is the DoD POST Commission?
Answer: The Department of Defense Peace Officer Standards and Training (DoD POST) Commission is comprised of senior leaders from DoD military and federal civilian law enforcement organizations that establishes minimum compliance standards for training and accreditation for over 100,000 law enforcement officers. It functions similar to a State POST Commission.
What is the Office of Accreditation and Credentialing (OAC)?
Answer: The OAC is the operations wing and action office for the Director of the DoD POST Commission. OAC staff are highly qualified in all facets of law enforcement operations, supervision, management and training design, development and delivery methodologies across the DoD spectrum. A primary focus of OAC is curriculum assessments for course accreditation and evidence collection for certification qualification and compliance requirements. OAC also manages the DoD POST Commission’s input to the National Decertification Index, represents DoD POST with the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training and the International Association of Chiefs of Police, and conducts analysis on police reform strategies and other studies at the direction of the Director and Deputy Director.
Who makes up the membership of the DOD POST Commission?
Answer: The DoD POST Commission is comprised of the Defense Health Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, Defense Logistics Agency, National Security Agency, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, Pentagon Force Protection Agency, United States Air Force, United States Army, United States Navy, and the United States Marine Corps.
What is the difference between certification and accreditation?
Answer: The term “accreditation” is generic to course compliance with Department of Defense Instruction (DoDI) 5525.15, Guideline-1. “Certification” is generic to an individual law enforcement officer who has successfully completed a DoD POST-accredited training course and met other extensive qualification requirements prescribed in the DoDI.
What does a DOD POST Certification mean for me as a law enforcement officer?
Answer: Every profession has an accrediting body that seeks to inculcate excellent performance and behavior in its members and establish a proactive reputation management practice through prescribing training, education and standards of conduct that garners public confidence, respect, security and trust. The DoD POST Commission is an agent of brokering that legal, moral and ethical relationship between its member agencies, the DoD community they serve and the American people. Certification is a professional status that is recognized by federal and state courts, federal and state agencies, academic institutions, law firms and civics and other professional organizations throughout our global jurisdiction. Many States grant reciprocity for successfully completing accredited training programs, which has a recruiting and career transition value. And, the liability inoculation of DoD POST certification cannot be understated. Meeting certification requirements validates the individual law enforcement officer’s confidence in their own ability to perform under difficult working conditions. DoD POST structured certification requirements based on input from the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training (IADLEST) and other recognized training and certification models throughout the federal law enforcement community. The result is the establishment of a galvanized and unimpeachable set of standards that preserve the dignity of life, culture and rule of law in a diverse, challenging and rapidly-changing law enforcement profession.
What does a DoD POST Certification mean for me as a criminal intelligence analyst?
Answer: Every profession has an accrediting body that seeks to inculcate excellent performance and behavior in its members and establish a proactive reputation management practice through prescribing training, education and standards of conduct that garners public confidence, respect, security and trust. The DoD POST Commission is an agent of brokering that legal, moral and ethical relationship between its member agencies, the DoD community they serve and the American people. Certification is a professional status that is recognized by federal and state courts, federal and state agencies, academic institutions, law firms and civics and other professional organizations throughout our global jurisdiction. DoD I 5525.15 establishes a pathway to IA certification, as follows:
(1) The course must meet the established accreditation standards that are recognized by the intelligence community.
(2) The training must comply with requirements set forth in Guideline-3.
(3) The unit must submit a written certification request to DoD POST based on IA’s mission requirements.
(4) The IA’s position description (PD) is in accordance with the PD 1805 standards.
What are the highlights of DoD Instruction 5525.15?
Answer: For basic law enforcement (LE) course accreditation, the course must be a minimum 400-hours comprised of LE-specific training. That training must include the 93 Terminal Learning Objectives listed in Guideline-1, and training academies administering the training must be accredited by the Federal Law Enforcement Training Accreditation (FLETA) Board as a pre-requisite of DoD POST accreditation.
The DoDI also:
Ensures peace officer certification requirements are met and maintained.
Ensures the National Decertification Index inputs for DoD POST are accurately managed.
Ensures Security Guards are trained to Guideline-2 standards.
Ensures Intelligence Analysts are trained to Guideline-3 standards.
Ensures agency accreditation follows Guideline-4 standards.
Establishes and operates a LE Certified Instructor Program.
Establishes and operates a LE Field Training Officer (FTO) Program.
Establishes annual in-service training requirements.