Canada
Recruits (cadets) undergo six months of basic training each year at “Depot,” Regina’s historic Royal Canadian Mounted Police academy. While at Depot, recruits spend 52 hours at the driving unit, acquiring many of the same advanced driving skills that civilian schools teach to would-be race drivers…
High-speed driving isn’t as every day as many civilians think — particularly those who get such ideas from American “reality” television shows. Wild, uncontrolled driving is essentially forbidden in Canada. Even skillful, controlled pursuits are strongly discouraged…
Along the way, cadets also learn how to maneuver their two-ton patrol cars with a Musical Ride horse’s speed, precision, and agility. They develop such skills on a dedicated tarmac pad, passing through five coned workstations. Each entails repeated and tightly timed runs — backward and forward — through obstacle courses, offset lane changes, into and out of multiple coned “garages”…
Achieving a pass is particularly tough at the wheel of a full-sized sedan. I quickly discovered that tight performance school steering techniques don’t work on any big sedan that requires several wheel turns, lock to lock.
This has prompted instructors to make “push/pull” steering an essential to the course. It’s similar to the “wheel shuffling” that seems taboo among performance-driving gurus. However, push/pull demands smooth coordination…
Read the full article — Driving with the RCMP — on the RCMP website by Max Wickens.
The U.K.
British traffic police officers undergo a minimum of two-stage driver training (totaling at least six weeks) or sometimes even three-stage training (totaling ten weeks) to get them to the ‘advanced’ level required for driving patrol cars. Another one or two equally challenging courses are necessary if they are to qualify as patrol motorcyclists as well.
A summary of their typical 160-hour advanced car course (which may only be taken after at least a previous ‘standard’ course — see below) may be found on the Scottish Police College website.
As a result, officers who qualify as advanced drivers and motorcyclists benefit from up to 680 hours of high-speed training (including primary and intermediate levels). To qualify as an instructor in both disciplines would require an additional 496 hours of training.
Apart from skid pan sessions, virtually all British police driver training takes place on public roads, avoiding the sterile, almost traffic-free environment of private circuits. It also means that learning to ensure the safety of other road users is an inescapable necessity at all times and that, more than anything else, is arguable what advanced driver training is genuinely about.
The three-stage training referred to above can be defined as follows (source — U.K. Association of Chief Police Officers):
- Basic Driving – Training to fulfill a patrol function within the constraints of the Highway Code [n.b. The British’ Highway Code’ is similar to a U.S. state driver’s manual but is more detailed]. Typically four weeks/160 hours.
- Standard Driving – Extending basic training to include emergency response driving, night response driving, and, most importantly, attitudinal training. A practical introduction to pursuit incidents and pursuit management in line with standard-level car control skills. Typically three weeks/120 hours.
- Advanced Driving – Achieving a high level of all-around driver skills, enabling pursuits and high-speed response driving, and a complete understanding of the effects of attitude and associated stress.Typically three weeks/120 hours.
[Note: Italicised notes or emphasis, above, have been added by Drive and Stay Alive]
Suppose an officer passes an initial police driving test and demonstrates that they are an adequately safe driver. In that case, they may be permitted to forego the Basic Driving course and be accepted straight onto a Standard Driving course (hence the references above, to two- or three-stage training). The three stages outlined above typically cover ten weeks, and advanced motorcycle training would require 3-7 additional weeks.
So What Exactly is I.S.’ Advanced Driving’?
Skid Pan/Pad and Emergency Evasion Techniques are Only a SMALL Part of Advanced Driving
Police Driver Training (U.K., 2005)
U.S.A.
Typically, it would appear that police driver training for U.S. law enforcement personnel lasts from two to five days, depending upon the department.
As an insight into American methodology, here is the website link for the State of Maryland Law Enforcement Driver Training Facility.
The Law Enforcement Driving Instructor Program, 2003, for Colorado.
Legal Aspects of Law Enforcement Driving (pdf) from Maricopa Community Colleges
Police Driving Programs from the Central Missouri State University
Advanced Driver Instructor Training Program — Topics from the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center