Professional (In-Service) Training
Professional (In-Service) Training
In-service training is what keeps an already-certified officer current. The exam tests the annual requirement, what training actually counts, who may deliver it, and how hours are recorded.
The requirement
Each peace officer must complete POST-approved in-service training every year. The employing agency - through its chief or sheriff - is responsible for scheduling it, documenting it, and reporting it to POST, which maintains the officer's individual training record. Failure to maintain the requirement is both an employment problem and a certification problem.
What counts
- Courses carrying a POST course number, taught by POST-certified instructors.
- Core content areas typically include legal update (new statutes and Nevada appellate decisions), firearms qualification with each weapon the officer is authorized to carry, defensive tactics, use of force and de-escalation, crisis intervention, ethics, and emergency vehicle operations.
- Instructional time only. Lunch, registration, and breaks are excluded from the approved hours.
Worked example
A department runs a four-hour legal update taught by a deputy district attorney. The instructor is expert, but unless the course has been certified by POST with written objectives, an hour value, and an evaluation method, the hours cannot be credited to officers. The training division must submit the curriculum, the instructor's credentials, and the test to POST, receive a course number, then report each officer's completion.
Traps that cost marks
Counting a vendor's or conference's hours that were never POST-certified; double-counting field training or academy hours as in-service; assuming any attorney, subject-matter expert, or ranking officer is automatically an approved instructor; assuming unused hours carry over into the next cycle; assuming the officer, rather than the agency, self-reports hours to POST.