Training & Education

On this page you will find various online training courses and supplemental training resources available for law enforcement, corrections, and other public safety personnel.

The Statewide Regional Training Coordinator program provides our stakeholders with a centralized contact for training. The Regional Training Coordinator's focus is to provide all different avenues of training information.

Handgun Instructor Level 1

Full Description

The 40-hour CJTC Handgun Instructor Course is designed to teach law enforcement (LE) personnel the skills required to lead safe and effective handgun training at the agency level. Participants should be proficient public speakers with above average marksmanship and weapons manipulation skills. Participants may need to spend time outside of class preparing lesson plans, presentations, and range drills.

In this course officers will learn about the Sikh community’s cultural, religious, and social practices so that they are able to effectively communicate and serve members of their community who are Sikh.

Upon completion of this course, Officers will be able to:

• discuss the Sikh faith and community;
• describe the Sikh identity and articles of faith;
• illustrate the challenges Sikhs face; and

summarize best practices on how to interact with Sikh community members.

In this 3-hour virtual training led by the Washington Poison Center, we will equip police and correctional officers with in-depth knowledge and safety strategies related to the opioid crisis.

In this interactive training, participants will explore how opioids affect the body, recognize overdose symptoms, and learn when and how to administer naloxone.

The session covers the history and evolving trends of opioid use, including the rise of stimulant combinations, and emphasizes language and effective communication with the public for relationship building. Officers will also examine real-world overdose scenarios, learn how to assess for safe and effective intervention, and learn how to best utilize Washington Poison Center services.

This training prepares first responders to respond safely, confidently, and compassionately to opioid-related incidents in their communities and facilities.

This dynamic training explores the critical role of sleep in mental health, recovery, and peak performance, especially for first responders. Grounded in neuroscience, the session examines how disrupted sleep patterns increase vulnerability to trauma-related disorders, impair judgment, and elevate physical health risks, including cardiovascular disease. Participants will learn how to implement accessible, evidence-based interventions such as breathwork, cold exposure, movement, and circadian rhythm regulation to enhance sleep quality and stress resilience. The course also addresses the detrimental effects of alcohol and substance use on sleep architecture, mental health, and emotional regulation, providing strategies to support individuals navigating these challenges.
 

Effective January 1, 2006, every peace officer certified under RCW 43-101-095 is required to complete a minimum of 24-hours of in-service training annually. 

This program is funded by the Mental Illness and Drug Dependency (MIDD) 2 Initiative PRI-08: Crisis Intervention Training – First Responders for King County Sheriff, Police, Jail Staff, Fire/EMS, and Other First Responders. In collaboration with the King County Sheriff’s Office and King County Behavioral Health and Recovery Division.

This is an 8-hour class to educate fire/EMS personnel on issues related to Crisis Intervention. This course will provide updated materials, skills, and public relations in regards to responding to individuals in behavioral health crisis.

In this course, students will learn:

a. Which deflection model serves your community needs
b. Define the mission / What will you need
c. Data collection & case management
d. Agency buy-in
e. Developing policy & procedures
f. Taking the first step

This is part three of a four-part series. Courses can be taken individually.

To register for the course, contact your Training Manager to assign the training to you via Acadis.

An increased understanding of the neurobiological impacts of trauma on victims of sexual violence have led to more effective law enforcement tactics for engaging with victims of these crimes. A trauma-informed approach by patrol officers, as prescribed in this two-hour training, can lead to increased criminal justice participation by victims and therefore higher rates of accountability for offenders.

In order to facilitate successful interactions with Black Americans in their community, students will learn about the generational trauma that impacts the experience of Black Americans in U.S. society. Fundamental concepts and principles of race and policing are taught to better understand perceptions, challenges, and relationships between law enforcement and Black Americans through lecture, self-reflection, and videos.

This program is funded by the Mental Illness and Drug Dependency (MIDD) 2 Initiative PRI-08: Crisis Intervention Training – First Responders for King County Sheriff, Police, Jail Staff, Fire/EMS, and Other First Responders. In collaboration with the King County Sheriff’s Office and King County Behavioral Health and Recovery Division.

This is an 8-hour class to educate law enforcement officers on issues related to Crisis Intervention. This course will provide updated materials, skills, and public relations in regards to dealing with mentally ill individuals while on duty.

In this course, students will learn:

a. Documenting activity
b. Continuing and growing the collaboration
c. Identifying funding
d. Open to other ideas and approaches
e. As the problem changes so might your approach.
f. Where do we go from here.

This is part four of a four-part series. Courses can be taken individually.

To register for the course, contact your Training Manager to assign the training to you via Acadis.

This comprehensive sexual assault training is mandated through RCW 43.101.272 for officers assigned to regularly investigate sexual assault and other gender-based violence involving adult victims as well as the highest-ranking supervisors and commanders overseeing those investigations. Training is required within one year of being assigned. SAI is a 4-day online course which includes up to six hours of pre-course work and take-home materials.

Per WAC 139-10-240, the Juvenile Corrections Officers Academy (JCOA) is an 80 hour academy designed to train corrections personnel responsible for the care, custody, and safety of juvenile offenders in county facilities.

The WSCJTC Instructor Certification Program is a WSCJTC initiative to give individuals the knowledge, skills, and experience to instruct Criminal Justice courses effectively and competently.

This is an 8-hour class to educate law enforcement officers on Crisis Intervention. This course will provide up to date materials, skills, and public relations information on dealing with mentally ill individuals.

In this course, students will learn about:

a. The history of deflection
b. The science of addiction
c. Key terms and concepts
d. Law Enforcement role in deflection
e. Building a plan for deflection programming

This is part one of a four-part series. Courses can be taken individually.

To register for the course, contact your Training Manager to assign the training to you via Acadis.

The course is 16 hours in length and is taught in seminar style. Students are expected to have a good grasp of the basics of Sheriff Civil Function. This course will cover advanced interpretations of:

• Duties and responsibilities of the Civil Unit
• Service of process, statutes, fees and terms, legal issues
• DV "front office papers"
• Domestic violence legal issue
• Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs)
• Habeas corpus
• Personal property, attachment, replevins, bonds
• Personal property executions
• Real property
• Officer safety and domestic violence
• Restitution

Per WAC 139-10-237, the Juvenile Services Academy is a 40-hour course designed to train employees whose primary job function is to assess, case plan, and/or manage, counsel, and/or monitor juvenile offenders.

This is an 8-hour class to educate law enforcement officers on issues related to Crisis Intervention. The course is designed to provide training to law enforcement professionals to use appropriate force options when dealing with someone in behavioral health crisis. This class will combine hands-on physical force options training and classroom lecture.

Tactical Trauma Training: Unraveling PTSD and Strengthening Resilience

Full Description

This 90-minute, virtual presentation delves into the impact of neuroscience and psychotherapy on the lives of first responders, with a focus on the effects of trauma, stress, and PTSD. It explores how these factors influence behavior, including substance use, and mental health while providing practical strategies for improving sleep, overall health, and resilience to stress. Key interventions discussed include psychotherapy, breathwork, cold exposure, exercise, and sunlight exposure, all aimed at enhancing stress resilience.

The presentation also emphasizes the importance of Eustress—a positive form of stress—in combating PTSD. Attendees will learn how to harness Eustress through various techniques to improve mental health and overall well-being. In addition, the session addresses substance use, suicide and suicide prevention, focusing on the use of Eustress, the significance of psychotherapy, and the role of community vulnerability in creating a supportive environment.

Designed specifically for first responders, this presentation aims to break down stereotypes and reduce the stigma surrounding mental health care and SUD treatment. It encourages proactive strategies for seeking help and supports the mental health needs of those who serve on the front lines.

Upon completion of the course, students will be able to:

1. Recognize the impact of trauma, stress, and PTSD on the mental health of first responders, and how these factors influence behavior, including use of alcohol and other substances.
2. Identify practical strategies for improving sleep, overall health, and resilience to stress, with a focus on interventions such as psychotherapy, breathwork, cold exposure, exercise, and sunlight exposure.
3. Understand the concept of Eustress and its role in combating PTSD, and how it can be effectively utilized to enhance stress resilience.
4. Utilize strategies for suicide prevention, including the use of Eustress, the importance of psychotherapy, and fostering community vulnerability to create a supportive environment.
5. Address and challenge stereotypes and stigma associated with seeking help for mental health issues, encouraging openness and proactive mental health care within the first responder community.

May 21, 2025
10:00-11:30

Training Dates

05/21/2025 - 05/21/2025

Prerequisites

None Specified

Registration Dates

01/01/2025 - 05/20/2025

Available Seats

91

Hours

1h 30m

Fee

$0.00

Training Location

Virtual Classroom

Reporting Instructions

None Specified

Signup Details

To register for the course, contact your Training Manager to register you using the WSCJTC Acadis Portal

This class is 24 hours in length. Course content will include:

• Sheriff's history
• Duties and responsibilities
• Service of process, statutes, fees and terms, legal issues
• DV "front office papers"
• Domestic violence legal issues
• Habeas corpus
• Personal property, attachment, replevins, bonds
• Personal property executions
• Real property
• Officer safety and domestic violence
• Restitution

The Holocaust Center for Humanity, in partnership with the Anti-Defamation League and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, provides the Law Enforcement and Society: Lessons of the Holocaust (LEAS) program to police agencies in Washington State. Officers will learn about the role of police in Nazi Germany and to reflect on their role in a democratic society today. Officers will learn to build more positive relationships with specific communities within areas they serve by understanding how biases, stereotypes, and a lack of understanding about varying cultural norms negatively impacts police interactions with the public.

This course is split into three parts that introduces the audience to the role of law enforcement during the Holocaust and the role law enforcement plays in society. In the first part, students are introduced to the Holocaust Center for Humanity, the course instructors, and will go through a virtual tour of the Center. In the second part, students will examine the role of law enforcement during the Holocaust. They will be asked to critically think about various scenarios by way of photo analysis and discussion. In the third part of the course students will go through a guided lecture and discussion about the role of law enforcement in today’s society, and more specifically their role in law enforcement and the communities they serve. Several questions will be asked to facilitate self-reflection and group discussion.

To register for the course, contact your Training Manager to assign the training to you via Acadis. Registration does not guarantee acceptance into the class. Selections will be completed six weeks prior to the class; those accepted into the class will receive a notification at that time. If you register for the class with less than six weeks until the date, please email the LETCSA team.

This introductory course is designed to help you understand why Substance Use Disorder (SUD) is considered a chronic brain disease and how your interactions within the corrections setting can have a positive or negative effect for people using drugs.

You will learn to recognize behaviors that might be substance use related and how to engage with people based on those behaviors to have the best possible outcomes.

You will be introduced to community members with lived experience, and learn some of the risk factors, such as trauma, that can lead to substance use and that recovery is possible.

This class is 80 hours in length and expands on the teaching of the Basic course, and provides new material.

SHIELD trains police officers how to be safe, healthy, and more effective when performing their duties during the overdose crisis. It is a vital resource at a time when police are being asked to do more with less, while facing high risks and reduced public support.

SHIELD's skills-based learning is delivered peer-to-peer by the SHIELD training team, which is led by a retired police chief and includes research staff at Northeastern University and public health experts. Using an interactive instructional design and customized local information, the three modules are delivered in a single session in person or by Zoom.

Module 1: Resilience. Provides key facts about stress
and burnout. Builds skills for recognizing and
problem solving to remedy the effects of vicarious
trauma, compassion fatigue, and toxic stress.

Module 2: Officer Safety. Provides essential
information about risk levels and operational safety
techniques for needlestick injuries, infectious disease
transmission, field exposure to fentanyl, overdose rescue,
and stimulant-involved encounters.

Module 3: Public Safety. Provides strategies and best
practices for improving health and safety and
reducing stress burdens through linkages with
treatment and supportive service providers.

This class is 4-hour online training is for staff either commissioned or civilian that work for the sheriff in the capacity of handling the mandated civil functions of a Sheriff’s Civil Unit. These include service of process, protection orders, seizure and forfeiture of personal or real property and how to properly execute a Sheriff’s Sale.

This 40 hour course will cover a variety of topics relating to law enforcement records handling. Some of the topics include:

• Introduction to the Criminal Justice system
• State & Federal criminal history guidelines
• Records dissemination
• Media relations and resources
• Firearms laws
• Property and evidence
• Licensing

21st Century Police Leadership (21 CPL)  is an intensive course designed to foster, train and empower law enforcement leaders.  Selected applicants will be assigned to a cohort that will receive this training during a 3-month period.  The primary courses embedded within this curriculum are Emotional Intelligence, Effective Communications and Cultivating Culture.  The delivery method for this curriculum will involve pre-course self-study work, 3 days in class a month (totaling 9 days of actual class time) followed by assignments and peer learning calls between courses.

In this course, participants will learn the importance of applying a trauma-informed, Start by Believing response in their interactions with victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, and other forms of gender-based and personal violence. Participants will also hear from survivors in WA State about their experiences working with the criminal justice system and how the Start by Believing approach could have or did benefit those interactions. Participants will also learn about the content of WSCJTC’s victim interviewing course (Sexual Assault Investigations – Victim-Centered Engagement and Resiliency Tactics) and the impact of wellness skills on interactions with victims.

Effective July 2023, this 3-hour online Start by Believing Summit course is a required prerequisite for the SAI-VCERT/victim interviewing class under RCW 43.101.272. Additionally, effective July 2025, this training will satisfy the gender-based violence officer training requirement under RCW 43.101.276. All peace officers shall complete the gender-based violence training at least once every three years.

This class is 40 hours in length and teaches basic techniques to investigate collisions.

This class serves as a recertification for Firearms Handgun Instructors and Handgun Optics Instructors. It is 16 hours in length and should be attended within 5 years of the last certification. This course will provide the current firearms instructor with contemporary techniques and theories as well as a review, along with updates on RDS technology and training standards. In addition, this course will provide a review of federal and state laws and contemporary legal standards relating to the use of deadly force.

Course topics are as follows:

This online course is for WA State law enforcement investigators, coroners, and medical examiners who are responsible for investigating child fatality cases. The goal of the course is to help investigators become proficient in investigating sudden and unexplained infant death and serious injury scenes.

The Advanced Medicolegal Forensic Investigation training course is designed for coroners, medical examiners, and medicolegal investigative personnel and is intended to provide continuing education. Topics will vary and will focus on advanced death investigative concepts, new trends, and best practices. This course may be used to maintain Washington State Certification.

The United States is home to over 500 different federally recognized tribes, each of them with unique culture, history, and contemporary issues. Upon completion of this course students will be able to illustrate and integrate principles of cultural humility, including but not limited to, knowledge of cultural responsiveness and the role of law enforcement in their relationships with Indigenous people.

This 40 hour course presents the FTO model (sometimes called the San Jose Model program) to field trainers engaged in training those who have recently completed the BLEA, Corrections or Equivalency academies. Classroom topics will include:

This 40 hour course is designed for persons with designated responsibilities associated with the property room. Course content includes:

• Washington State laws pertaining to property and evidence
• Job description and responsibilities
• Storage and organization methods
• WASPC accreditation standards
• WSP crime lab packaging and submission guidelines
• Audits and inventories
• Best practices: Policies and Procedures
• Retention guidelines and disposition projects
• Evidence in Court

This training equips participants with current and accurate information surrounding laws, the historical context around the relationship between the LGBTQ+ community and law enforcement, terminology, and more so that officers feel confident in their knowledge regarding the LGBTQ+ community. Other areas covered in this training will be gender identity, gender expression, and pronoun usage so that officers may effectively and respectfully communicate with LGBTQ+ individuals. After completing this training, officers will receive 2.5 hours of LETCSA credits.

The Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission (WSCJTC) and Washington Animal Control Association (WACA) have partnered together to offer the Animal Control Officer Academy. This 80-hour intensive course is held at the WSCJTC center in Burien, Washington and is specifically designed for Animal Control Officers. Instructors consist of WACA personnel who will cover a variety of topics to satisfy Washington state’s Animal Control Officer requirements.

The Advanced Ground Control and Survival program is designed to build on the 6240 Control Defensive Tactics Instructor course utilizing advanced control management, angles and more advanced techniques. The advanced course will introduce more drilling that will assist the student in understanding and implementing transitions from one skill to the other.  This will assist the student to keep several steps ahead of the subject if one technique fails. Controlling the subject to make an arrest by utilizing proper tactics is paramount for the safety of all parties involved.

This class is 120 hours in length and will provide students working knowledge of all skills gained in both the Basic and Advanced courses.

This class is a recertification of Shotgun Instructor Course #2018 and is now a 8 hours in length and should be attended within 5 years of last certification. This course will provide the current shotgun instructor with the contemporary techniques and theories.

The course topics are as follows:
• Shotgun deployment & manipulation exercises
• Shotgun Marksmanship Qualifications
• Introduce participants to contemporary techniques & theories for instruction

Prerequisites:

This 40 hour pre-supervisors course is designed to acquaint the prospective supervisor with an awareness of the demands and functions of the world of supervision. All too often, the newly appointed supervisor subsequently find themselves immersed in a world they didn’t anticipate and/or doesn’t understand. The transition from effective line worker to effective supervisor is difficult and challenging.

Change to Middle Management Career Level Certification Training Requirements – Effective January 1, 2023, the mandated course required to obtain Middle Management Career Level Certification will become the 21^st Century Police Leadership (21CPL) course. Those requiring Middle Management Certification will need to complete this three-week course, serve 12 months in their promoted rank then submit their application for certification. The 40-hour Middle Management course will no longer be offered.

The Basic Law Enforcement Academy (BLEA) is Washington’s mandated training academy for all city and county entry-level peace officers in the state. Through a centralized training model, Washington ensures all officers are equipped with the same base-level understanding of their responsibility to the communities they serve, standards to uphold, and education for effective community-oriented policing . To facilitate this training, WSCJTC hires exceptional training officers from agencies throughout the state and current subject matter experts.

The Advanced Counter-Striking 24-hour block builds on course 6240 of instruction and gives the trainer/practitioner a more comprehensive curriculum. The course aims to improve awareness, technical skill, and teaching ability for a higher level of understanding and functionality for the correct use and defense of an individual's counter striking tools.

The course progressions will build in layers of complexity to integrate all ranges of un-armed striking with an emphasis on reducing officer/suspect injuries, and safe training methods.

The curriculum will incorporate techniques and training practices from various disciplines brought together to effectively develop a cohesive understanding of efficient and practical skills which can be transmitted in a law enforcement capacity. Instruction includes the development of personal performance and skill, as well as coaching ability and a Train-The-Trainer component. Instruction blocks will include:

• Advanced understanding of unarmed ranges of striking and how to manage and use distance efficiently, safely, and appropriately for the application of intermediate force.
• The use of positional advantage for barriers, zoning and shielding.
• How to develop proper body mechanics to maximize leverage and effectiveness with all body generated striking tools.
• Proper form and safe execution of a full array of striking tools, including hands (open and closed), feet, elbows, knees, and forearms with the ability to modulate force according to individual situations, and/or officer/ suspect performance disparities.
• Drills and exercises to develop timing, proper reaction, balance, strength, stamina, situational awareness and officer confidence.

The job of a First Level Supervisor is perhaps the most challenging position in the organization and clearly critical to its success. Based upon a comprehensive Job Task Analysis conducted jointly with its stakeholders, the Criminal Justice Training Commission (CJTC) has re-designed the First Level Supervision Training program.