LE POST Board Handgun Qualification Standards Reference List

[ST911]

Members of the shooting community often reference law enforcement firearms proficiency standards as useful measures of competency. They will measure themselves against these standards, use them as benchmarks, or adapt the courses of fire for their own uses.

As part of other efforts, I have been collecting the handgun qualification courses of fire established by state regulatory bodies governing police service (POST boards, etc). These courses of fire represent that states academy exit standard for handgun proficiency, annual (or more frequent) continuing education or proficiency requirement for the handgun, other applicable handgun qualification standard established for serving as a law enforcement officer in that state, or a state LEOSA standard.

The links below are those courses of fire, listed alphabetically by state. To ensure accuracy, only those courses of fire published by the POST body, to their own website, are included here. Where the course is part of a larger document or manual, page numbers are referenced.

As you utilize this resource, keep in mind that these constitute a minimum standard of proficiency. Alternate courses may be approved in lieu of these courses, and local agencies may utilize higher standards in their programs.

If you can provide any of the missing state courses or know of corrections that need to be made, please post in this thread supplying a link to the course of fire hosted on an official POST site. On a case by case basis, I may include links to other organizations that host those state courses that are of exceptional reliability and vetted.

This thread is not intended to be a collection of LE courses as a whole, only the state established standard(s). Please do NOT post other courses of fire you prefer or that are in use by your local agency.

I hope this information is useful to you.

Alabama Police Officers Standards and Training Commission
http://www.apostc.state.al.us/Portals/0/Firearms%20Revised%203-29-07.pdf

Alaska Police Standards Council
Not found on site

Arizona Peace Officers Standards and Training
Semi-auto: http://www.azpost.state.az.us/assets/Firearms/2013Semi.AutoQualCourse+defintions.pdf
Revolver: http://www.azpost.state.az.us/assets/Firearms/2013RevolverCourse.pdf

Arkansas Law Enforcement Training Academy
http://www.clest.org/aleta/Documents/handgun.pdf

California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training
Not found on site

Colorado Peace Officer Standards and Training Board
http://www.coloradoattorneygeneral.gov/sites/default/files/uploads/HANDGUN%20QUALIFICATION%20COURSE.pdf

Connecticut Police Officer Standards and Training Council
Not found on site

Delaware Council on Police Training
Not found on site

Florida Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission
http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/Content/getdoc/75909126-f582-4dad-909c-9c34dff428e7/CJSTC-086ADTD110807.aspx

Georgia Police Officers Standards and Training Council
http://www.gapost.org/pdf_file/gsac05.pdf

Hawaii
Not found on site

Idaho Peace Officers Standards and Training
http://www.post.idaho.gov/Forms/documents/FirearmsQualForm.pdf

Illinois Law Enforcement Standards and Training Board
http://www.ptb.state.il.us/pdf/AdmRulesAnnualFirearms.pdf

Indiana Law Enforcement Training Board
http://www.in.gov/ilea/files/48_round_course.pdf

Iowa Law Enforcement Academy
Not found on site

Kansas Commission on Peace Officers Standards and Training
http://www.kscpost.org/target.php
http://www.kletc.org/pdf/resources_hr218_course_of_fire.pdf

Kentucky Department of Criminal Justice Training
Not found on site

Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement Administration of Criminal Justice
http://www.lcle.la.gov/programs/uploads/2009_Pre_Academy_Manual.pdf
(Page 59)

Maine Criminal Justice Academy
http://www.maine.gov/dps/mcja/forms/documents/LawEnforcementPistolQualificationCourse2011.doc

Maryland Police and Correctional Training Commissions
Not found on site

Massachusetts Municipal Police Training Committee
http://www.mlefiaa.org/files/LEO_002/LESOA_State_Standard_Firearms_Qualification.pdf

Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards
http://www.michigan.gov/documents/mcoles/Firearms_Standard_249947_7.pdf
(Page 20)

Minnesota Board of Peace Officer Standards and Training
https://dps.mn.gov/entity/post/forms/Documents/LEOSAIA-instructions.pdf

Mississippi Board on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Training
Not found on site

Missouri Peace Officer Standards and Training
Not found on site

Montana Peace Officers Standards and Training Council
Not found on site

Nebraska Law Enforcement Training Center
http://www.nletc.state.ne.us/pdfs/FireQual.pdf

Nevada Commission on Peace Officers’ Standards and Training
Not found on site

New Hampshire Police Standards and Training Council
Not found on site

New Jersey Police Training Commission
http://www.state.nj.us/lps/dcj/njptc/manuals/BasicCourseFirearmsManual.pdf
(Page 23)

New Mexico Department of Public Safety Law Enforcement Academy
http://nmlea.dps.state.nm.us/documents/Reference_Guide.pdf
(Page 88)

New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services
Not found on site

North Carolina Criminal Justice Education and Training Standards Commission
http://ncja.ncdoj.gov/getdoc/fe3d19fc-f3ca-40b7-9f39-f02aa563a9e4/In-Service-Firearms-Qual--Manual-2013-02---Rev--XI.aspx
(Page 50)

North Dakota Peace Officer Standards and Training Board
Not found on site

Ohio Peace Officer Training Commission
Not found on site

Oklahoma Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training
http://www.ok.gov/cleet/documents/FirearmsQualificationJune2007.pdf

Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training
Not found on site

Pennsylvania Municipal Police Officers’ Education and Training Commission
Not found on site

Rhode Island Police Officers Commission on Standards and Training
Not found on site

South Carolina Law Enforcement Training Council
Not found on site

South Dakota Law Enforcement Standards and Training Commission
http://dci.sd.gov/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=A7kPCUoNY8g%3d&tabid=563&mid=1097

Tennessee Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission
Not found on site

Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education
Not found on site

Utah Peace Officer Standards and Training
Not found on site

Vermont Criminal Justice Training Council
Not found on site

Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services
http://www.dcjs.virginia.gov/standardsTraining/compulsoryMinimumTraining/cjm.pdf
(Pages 508-515)

Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission
Not found on site

West Virginia Division of Justice and Community Services – LEPS
Not found on site

Wisconsin Department of Justice Training and Standards Bureau
https://wilenet.org/html/leosa/wis-course-approved.pdf

Wyoming Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission
Not found on site

[Chuck Haggard]

Kansas has two courses of fire, one for the academy to graduate, the other is the in-service and LEOSA qual that is mandated by the state for retired officers and to keep your commission.

Just an FYI

An agency can not drop the standards on the testing, but they can raise them. State says 70% is GTG, my job says 75% or you can't work for us, SWAT guys and FIs have to shoot 90% for their specialty jobs.

I'll note the in-service qual requires the IALEFI Q target, but we are allowed to vary it as long as we use the scoring set by POST, so I started buying these so that we were shooting a bad guy with a gun instead of a bowling pin;
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.letargets.com/images/ialefi-qr.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.letargets.com/estylez_item.aspx?item%3DIALEFI-QR&h=300&w=300&sz=17&tbnid=OZhAq5Gwz1km2M:&tbnh=90&tbnw=90&zoom=1&usg=__lJZ7FPHFVwrb_uJkjDFDAftcirM=&docid=oihk3d7ikPaJ4M&sa=X&ei=mtg1UsKnHaGO2AX7k4CIAQ&ved=0CEIQ9QEwBg&dur=0


The state in-service qual is snubby neutral, which I think is an issue, but I'm not in charge.

[jlw]

Kansas has two courses of fire, one for the academy to graduate, the other is the in-service and LEOSA qual that is mandated by the state for retired officers and to keep your commission.

Just an FYI

An agency can not drop the standards on the testing, but they can raise them. State says 70% is GTG, my job says 75% or you can't work for us, SWAT guys and FIs have to shoot 90% for their specialty jobs.

I'll note the in-service qual requires the IALEFI Q target, but we are allowed to vary it as long as we use the scoring set by POST, so I started buying these so that we were shooting a bad guy with a gun instead of a bowling pin;
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.letargets.com/images/ialefi-qr.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.letargets.com/estylez_item.aspx?item%3DIALEFI-QR&h=300&w=300&sz=17&tbnid=OZhAq5Gwz1km2M:&tbnh=90&tbnw=90&zoom=1&usg=__lJZ7FPHFVwrb_uJkjDFDAftcirM=&docid=oihk3d7ikPaJ4M&sa=X&ei=mtg1UsKnHaGO2AX7k4CIAQ&ved=0CEIQ9QEwBg&dur=0


The state in-service qual is snubby neutral, which I think is an issue, but I'm not in charge.

GA POST allows agencies to use alternate courses provided they are equal to or harder than the state course. Agencies may submit courses to GALEFI (http://www.galefi.com) for an advisory opinion. There was a prevailing opinion that unless GALEFI approved a course it couldn't be used to meet the annual qualification requirement. It turns out that this is not the case; however, if a course hasn't been approved by GALEFI then an agency is on its own if there is an issue with POST. Some agencies will shoot the POST course once to satisfy the state requirements and then will shoot their own course for agency purposes.

[gtmtnbiker98]

Ohio's pistol qualification is a JOKE. It became mandatory this year, with time constraints. Long story short, it took me 7-minutes to complete this year's in-service qualification on two firearms. What a joke. Max distance is 50-feet and entire course of fire per firearm is 25-rounds. My whopping seven minute qualification also included the time it took to reload the magazines. With my firing two weapons, I got to shoot a whole box of 50 Winchester Ranger. The other officers who only qualify with a single primary issued firearm fires 25-rounds annually.

Years ago, my department required both day and night time qualification and day time was 90-rounds and night time was 95-rounds for a total of 185-rounds with a maximum distance of 25-yards. Times have really changed and not for the better in terms of law enforcement firearms proficiency.

[Chuck Haggard]

You would think the state that brought us the Canton v Ohio case would be a little more in tune with training liability issues.

[Lon]

The other officers who only qualify with a single primary issued firearm fires 25-rounds annually.


That's ALL the shooting they do per year? No other in service? Holy Kitten.

[jlw]

That's ALL the shooting they do per year? No other in service? Holy Kitten.

Peace officers in Georgia can get by with shooting only 30. All that have to do is mange to get 80% of the course linked above.

[Lon]

You would think the state that brought us the Canton v Ohio case would be a little more in tune with training liability issues.

Let me tell you how this "qualification" course came about. A couple academies had some issues with cadets passing the state qualification course. They whined to the right people. Now we have this abortion. The theory being that agencies/academies can do more actual training with a smaller qualification course. They removed the best parts of the course - shooting on the move and low light.

They're gutting the rifle qualification course as well. The new one is going to be 20 rounds. They also took wasn't the ability for individual agencies to shoot an alternative qual course. You can add to the 25 rd course, but you must shoot the stupid 25 rd course.

[gtmtnbiker98]

Let me tell you how this "qualification" course came about. A couple academies had some issues with cadets passing the state qualification course. They whined to the right people. Now we have this abortion. The theory being that agencies/academies can do more actual training with a smaller qualification course. They removed the best parts of the course - shooting on the move and low light.

They're gutting the rifle qualification course as well. The new one is going to be 20 rounds. They also took wasn't the ability for individual agencies to shoot an alternative qual course. You can add to the 25 rd course, but you must shoot the stupid 25 rd course.
Oh, and the BUG qualification is 8-rounds!!!!

[Lon]

Peace officers in Georgia can get by with shooting only 30. All that have to do is mange to get 80% of the course linked above.

I guess I'm just spoiled. We shoot and/or do force on force training 6-7 times a year.

[jlw]

I guess I'm just spoiled. We shoot and/or do force on force training 6-7 times a year.

Passing the course one time is all the state requires. Agencies can mandate additional training. We do.

[Lon]

Passing the course one time is all the state requires. Agencies can mandate additional training. We do.

Ohio's the same way. I just don't know any agencies who ONLY shoot the 25 rounds. Everyone around here does at least a little extra.

[BN]

Here's a link to Ohio. I goggled "2011 OPOTA firearms course" so I guess it isn't a secret.

http://www.chlohio.com/uploads/2011-11-7_Semi-AutoPistolQualification_OPC.pdf

With only 25 rounds and minus points for hits off the target, it's pretty easy to fail if a shooter has a malfunction or blows the reload.

For experienced shooters such as would be on this forum, it is pretty easy.

[Sal Picante]

What about including some of the Navy/Army small arms quals? (if anyone knows 'em?)

[ST911]

What about including some of the Navy/Army small arms quals? (if anyone knows 'em?)

Not in this thread please. State POST board standards/continuing ed/recurrent qual requirements only. Otherwise, military begets feds, begets contractors, begets... Too much dilution begets too little utility.

Handgun only, for the same reasons.