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About Academies
In order to become certified as a Peace Officer in Colorado, an individual must complete an appropriate academy and meet additional requirements.
Law enforcement agencies and academic institutions operate 35 POST-approved academies. There are NO online academies. Each academy may establish its own standards for admission that meet or exceed the requirements of POST. Please contact individual academies for specific requirements for admission.
For information about accrediting your POST Academy please see IADLEST National Academy Accreditation.
Academy Statistics
POST recognizes that there is a lot to consider when deciding which academy to attend. To aid you in that decision, we have compiled statistics for each academy concerning their test scores, graduation rates, class size, and total training hours.
Click to view the Colorado POST Academy Statistics spreadsheet [updated 08/2024]. DISCLAIMER: The annual and overall statewide rankings contained in this Academy Metric are based on the sole measurable data point available; the POST written exam. While this is an important and useful assessment tool, it cannot entirely capture the entire breadth of instruction at a law enforcement training academy. Soft skills, such as communication and de-escalation, cannot be quantified with current assessment methods and are therefore not used towards these rankings. Users of this Academy Metric should understand that while this tool can be effective in comparing law enforcement training academies across the state, it does not capture the overall quality of training provided to recruits.
New Academy Director Training
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Note
For questions about certification, please use the following e-mail:
For individual academy contacts, please see the Authorized Colorado Basic Academies list:
For New Academies:
For POST Academy Renewal:
General Resources: