CJK0002 – Introduction to Law Enforcement is a 12-hour course and the opening component of Florida's 770-hour Law Enforcement Basic Recruit Training Program. It carries zero credit hours; like every academy component it is measured in clock hours.
Twelve hours is short, and the course is orientation rather than instruction in police work. It exists to establish the frame the rest of the academy is built on: what the criminal justice system is, where a sworn officer sits within it, what the command structure looks like, and — most substantially — the ethical standards the profession expects and the conduct that ends a career before it starts.
That ethics content is the weight of the course. Recruits work through basic criminal justice ethics and, specifically, how to recognize and avoid compromising interactions — the gratuities, relationships, and small accommodations that create obligation and erode independence. CJSTC places this at the very front of the academy deliberately: it is easier to establish the standard before recruits have any operational experience than to correct it afterward.
Students also receive an orientation to the academy itself — its structure, the State Officer Certification Examination that follows it, and the requirements for employment as a sworn officer.
The course is offered at approximately 20 Florida institutions, all of them state colleges operating criminal justice training centers or regional public safety academies: Chipola, College of Central Florida, College of the Florida Keys, Daytona State, Eastern Florida State, Florida Gateway, Florida State College at Jacksonville, Gulf Coast State, Hillsborough, Indian River State, Miami Dade, North Florida, Northwest Florida State, Palm Beach State, Pasco-Hernando, Pensacola State, Santa Fe, South Florida State, St. Johns River, and Seminole State.
The academy qualifies candidates for certification and sworn employment rather than for a degree.
The Law Enforcement Basic Recruit Training Program (LEBRTP) is a 770-hour academy required for certification as a sworn law enforcement officer under Chapter 943, Florida Statutes. The curriculum is written and maintained by the Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission (CJSTC) through the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, so content is consistent statewide. The full sequence:
Every component is a clock-hour course carrying zero credit hours, and none counts toward an associate degree.
Completing this course does not certify anyone. Recruits must finish the full 770-hour academy, pass the State Officer Certification Examination (SOCE), and satisfy the employment and background requirements of Chapter 943, F.S. Certification is granted by CJSTC, not by the college, and an officer must also be employed by an agency to be certified.
Requirements attach to the academy rather than to this individual course: minimum age 19, U.S. citizenship, high school diploma or equivalent, no felony convictions or disqualifying misdemeanors, a background investigation, a physical examination and drug screening, and a passing score on the Florida Basic Abilities Test (CJBAT). Requirements are set in statute and by the training center.
Academy training is PSAV clock-hour instruction, not college credit, and does not transfer as general education. Many Florida colleges award block credit toward an A.S. in Criminal Justice Technology for full academy completion plus certification, under local articulation agreements rather than statewide SCNS equivalency. Confirm terms with the receiving institution.
Officers already certified in another discipline — corrections to law enforcement, for instance — complete abbreviated crossover programs drawing on a subset of these courses rather than the full academy. Candidates should work from the crossover curriculum published by their training center.
It would be easy to treat this as a throwaway orientation. CJSTC does not, and neither should a student. The compromising-interactions content in particular is the profession's first line of defense against the conduct that most reliably ends law enforcement careers and destroys agency credibility. Instructors typically ground it in real Florida decertification cases. The standard established in these twelve hours is the one recruits are held to for the remaining 758.
Generated August 31, 2026 · Updated August 31, 2026