Police Training in Baltimore During the Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic presented significant challenges for police training in the United States city of Baltimore. The city’s police department operates its own police academy, training both new recruits and incumbent officers. The police academy was able to quickly shift to remote learning for recruits enrolled in entry-level training. All recruit classes graduated nearly on time, but the prolonged period they spent in remote learning interfered with the trainees’ ability to subsequently apply what they had learned in practical scenarios. For incumbent officers, continuing education was interrupted for four months, reducing the amount of in-service training that could be accomplished during 2020. This article recounts the police department’s experience with training during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, beginning in March 2020.