Duration and Curriculum

The academy level curriculum will include classroom lectures on use of force, safety, nomenclature, care of weapons, police combat tactics and marksmanship.

Range instruction emphasizes the practical application of police weapons related to actual combat conditions. The range officer of the involved training facility will attest to the qualifications of the respective officer. Officers must qualify with their departmental issued weapon or weapons. On each qualification date the officer must attain an average of 80% of the possible score while demonstrating safe weapons handling techniques.

Depending on the number of persons being trained, and considering the amount of experience, or lack of experience the training population has with firearms, the academy level training period will vary in time, but will consist of a minimum of 40 hours.

Non-Qualification

Should an officer initially fail to qualify, that person would be permitted up to 5 attempts and a maximum of 40 hours additional training to attain certification. Scheduling for the additional attempt will be conducted at the convenience of the firearms officer.

Under no circumstances, will an officer be permitted to carry a firearm on duty, be certified as a police officer, or graduate from an academy, unless certified as per the requirements of Section 8404 of the Council on Police Training.

Certification Retention Process

As authorized by 8404(a)(5): In order to retain certification, all police officers in the State of Delaware, including firearms instructors, must receive recertification in firearms proficiency annually. The recertification must be conducted by a POST certified firearms instructor. Firearms instructors are not permitted to recertify themselves.

A minimum of 3 re-qualification shoots per calendar year, scheduled on at least 2 separate days, with at least 60 days between scheduled shoots are required. Of these 3, there will be 1 mandatory “low light” shoot. The "low light" shoot may be conducted on the same day as 1 daylight shoot.

Each training session shall consist of 1 minimum standards re-qualification course for each duty weapon, consistent with Section 12.0 of this regulation. An additional 50 rounds shall be fired for proficiency training from the handgun and the patrol rifle. This is a total of 100 rounds per shoot with the handgun and 100 rounds per shoot with the patrol rifle, totaling 300 rounds per calendar year as a minimum for each weapon. Departments using shotguns will fire a minimum of 30 rounds of ammunition for proficiency training per year.

The Chief of Police shall forward to the Administrator, documentation of annual firearms recertification for each officer under his/her command by March 31st of each calendar year with the completion of the Annual POST Survey.

All training ammunition shall be comparable to issued service ammunition in performance characteristics. Service ammunition shall be collected annually and replaced with new. The collected ammunition may be used for training. All shooting is to be completed with authorized/issued weapons and equipment.