The most important thing to know about the Broward Police Academy at Broward College is that the Academy is not an "open enrollment" program.  Only those who are sent to the Academy by a police department may attend the Academy.

What typically happens is that a police department hires someone to be a police officer or deputy and that person's first job assignment is to attend the Police Academy.  On rare occasions, a student may convince a police department (typically a small department) to "sponsor" the student where the department vouches for the student, but the student pays the cost of the Academy.  It is far better to be hired by a police department because 1) the department pays for your Academy, 2) you will have a job once you graduate and 3) you get paid while you're in the Academy.

The Academy is about 22 weeks.  Students attend the Academy from Mon. to Fri., 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.  Students take classes in interpersonal skills, human diversity, criminal law report writing, patrol techniques, interview techniques, defensive tactics, firearms, first aid and other topics.  A new Academy class starts approximately every two to three months.

Thus, if you want to attend the Broward Police Academy, you should first try to get hired by a police department or the sheriff's office.

The minimum requirements needed to become a police officer in Florida are to be a U.S. citizen, age 19 or higher and to possess a high school diploma or GED (although a college background is more desirable).  You also should have a good driving record with no tickets.  You should not have a criminal record--though past misdemeanor criminal offenses might be overlooked in some very few cases.

Before you apply to a police agency to be an officer, you need to take certain tests:  two written tests, a physical agility test and a swimming test.  You take those tests at the Criminal Justice Testing Center at Broward College.  Once you take the tests, you then apply to the different police agencies and hope to get hired.  For information on how to register for the tests and details on the nature of the tests, visit the Testing Center web page.

There are some police academies in Florida which do not require the student to first be hired or sponsored by a police agency.  These academies are "open enrollment" academies where the student pays all costs and where the student is not promised a job upon graduation.  (The student is still subject to a background check and testing before being admitted to an open enrollment academy.)  You may wish to contact other academies for information. 

A good way to convince a police department to hire you is to take college classes and get a college degree.  Here at Broward College, we offer Associate degrees (two year degrees) in Criminal Justice.  If you are interested in learning about our criminal justice college degree programs, e-mail your U.S. Postal mailing address to ecohen@broward.edu and an information packet will be mailed to  you.

Good luck to you!!