US Capitol Police Training: FLETC, Phases, and Post-Jan 6 Reforms

United States Capitol Police training runs about 37 weeks across four phases, beginning at the department’s academy in Cheltenham, Maryland, moving to the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in Glynco, Georgia, returning to Cheltenham for agency-specific instruction, and ending with field training on Capitol grounds. Recruits are paid from day one and start at roughly $81,552 a year.¹

The Four Phases of Recruit Training

The USCP pipeline is broken into orientation, FLETC, agency-specific training, and the Police Training Officer Program (PTOP).²

Phase 1 — Orientation. Two weeks in Cheltenham, Maryland. Recruits receive credentials, complete paperwork, and enroll in benefits. Housing is not provided; recruits pay their own room and board.

Phase 2 — FLETC. Roughly 12 to 13 weeks at Glynco, Georgia. Instruction covers constitutional and federal criminal law, firearms, defensive tactics, arrest techniques, driver training, VIP protection, counterterrorism, and physical fitness. Housing, food, clothing, and equipment are free during this phase.³²

Phase 3 — Agency-Specific Training. Roughly 13 to 14 weeks back at the USCP Training Academy in Cheltenham. Instruction focuses on the policies, procedures, and posts unique to Capitol Police operations. Physical conditioning continues throughout, including distance running, sprints, weight resistance, and calisthenics.³

Phase 4 — PTOP. Eight weeks of on-the-job field training. Graduates are promoted to “Private with Training” and paired with a veteran Police Training Officer. After completing this phase, they are assigned to a division within the Uniformed Services Bureau and begin a one-year probationary period.²

USCP pages differ slightly on the exact length of phases 2 and 3, likely reflecting periodic curriculum adjustments. Both agree on roughly 26 weeks of classroom and practical instruction before field training begins.

What FLETC Covers

The specific FLETC course USCP recruits attend is the Uniformed Police Training Program (UPTP), a 64-instructional-day, 527-hour curriculum. The program is accredited by the Federal Law Enforcement Training Accreditation Board, most recently in May 2025.⁴

The UPTP is organized into nine subject areas: behavioral science (conflict management, mental health crisis response, officer resilience); counterterrorism (IEDs, weapons of mass destruction, incident command); cyber (digital evidence); driver operations (high-risk vehicle stops); enforcement operations (use of force, active threat response, report writing); firearms (handgun, shotgun, judgment shooting); investigative operations (drug identification, crime scene preservation); leadership and legal instruction (Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendment issues); and physical techniques (baton control, electronic control devices, crowd control, and a Physical Efficiency Battery).⁵

Sessions accommodate up to 48 participants at Glynco and up to 24 at the Artesia, New Mexico campus.⁴ The UPTP delivers the common foundation every federal uniformed officer needs; the Capitol-specific work happens back at Cheltenham.

The Physical Abilities Test

To graduate, every recruit must pass the Physical Abilities Test (PAT), a continuous timed sequence of four tasks completed within three minutes and 52 seconds. The standard is the same regardless of gender or age.⁶

Slalom sprint: from a kneeling start, run a 375-foot cone pattern.
Stair climb: ascend and descend three flights four times.
Dummy drag: drag a 165-pound rescue dummy 40 feet.
Trigger pulls: 15 single-handed trigger pulls with each hand (30 total), holding a training weapon at eye level with the arm extended.

USCP also publishes self-assessment benchmarks candidates can use to gauge readiness: a 1.5-mile run in 13:50 or under, at least 33 push-ups, at least 37 sit-ups in a minute, and a bench press of 80 percent or more of body weight.⁶

Where the Training Happens

The USCP Training Academy is housed at FLETC’s Cheltenham, Maryland site, known formally as the Office of Cheltenham Operations. The campus also hosts the Pentagon Force Protection Agency Academy and the Prince George’s County Fire Academy, and serves about 20,000 officers from more than 76 agencies in the Washington region each year.⁷

The facility includes a 108-point indoor firing range, a tactical village for active-shooter and close-quarters training, a 2.2-mile driving course with urban-grid and highway sections, an irrigated skid pad, and computer-based training labs. Beyond recruit instruction, Cheltenham’s primary role is maintaining perishable skills for officers already on the job: firearms requalification, pursuit driving, and tactical refreshers.⁷

Training is overseen by the Training Services Bureau, which reports to the Assistant Chief of Police for Standards and Training Operations and includes four divisions: Entry-Level Training, In-Service Training, Firearms Training, and Research and Development.⁸

Specialized Unit Training

After basic training and some time on the job, officers can pursue assignments that carry additional training requirements. The Operational Services Bureau runs the department’s most intensive teams, including the Containment and Emergency Response Team (its SWAT equivalent), the K-9 unit, the Hazardous Devices Section, and the Hazardous Material Response team.⁹

Other specialties are spread across bureaus. The Uniformed Services Bureau trains officers for the Civil Disturbance Unit (CDU), long-gun certification, and motorcycle operations. The Protective Services Bureau covers dignitary protection details, criminal investigation, and threat assessment and intelligence analysis. Entry-level agents and investigators hired for protective operations face roughly one year of training before reaching full operational status.¹⁰

FLETC also offers a standalone Protective Service Operations Training Program, an 11-day course at Glynco covering protective detail organization, motorcade formations, route surveys, vehicle ambush countermeasures, live-fire engagement, and tactical medical skills.¹¹

How Training Changed After January 6

The January 6, 2021, Capitol breach exposed years of underinvestment. A 104-page report from USCP Inspector General Michael Bolton, released in March 2021, found that most Civil Disturbance Unit officers had not completed required annual training “for the previous few years.” The department lacked adequate policies defining CDU responsibilities, equipment, or training standards. Of roughly 1,400 uniformed officers on duty that day, only about 200 had CDU gear; some worked without helmets or gas masks.¹²¹³

Bolton also flagged failures in intelligence training. Threat tracking was fragmented, officers lacked related training, and there was no consensus internally about whether intelligence reports actually indicated specific threats to the joint session that day. He recommended consolidating intelligence functions into a single bureau, creating a formal intelligence training program, and shifting the agency from a reactive police department to a “protective agency.”¹³

An earlier 2016 OIG audit had already flagged that a key USCP training directive from 2012 was outdated and failed to specify in-service training requirements or their frequency. Use-of-force training completion had dropped from about 99 percent in 2013 to 88 percent by 2015, and the department had no approved annual training plan during the five-year audit period.¹⁴

In July 2021, the Senate voted 98-0 to approve a $2.1 billion emergency security bill that directed $100 million to the Capitol Police for overtime, mental health support, and training.¹⁵ The department used it to expand CDU training with joint National Guard exercises, riot scenarios, shoot/don’t-shoot drills, and less-than-lethal munitions practice, and to send officials to specialized CDU courses in Seattle and Virginia Beach.¹⁶

In August 2022, USCP established a specialty pay assignment for CDU officers that requires meeting annual advanced crowd control training standards covering batons, shields, and chemical munitions. For the more than 80 percent of the force not assigned to CDU, the department introduced a mandatory eight-hour in-person crowd control course, required every two years starting February 2025. The curriculum covers mass arrest procedures, perimeter establishment, crowd control formations, and equipment use.¹⁷

The department also acquired a virtual simulator for judgmental use-of-force and de-escalation training, added scenario-based exercises with role players on Capitol grounds, and issued an updated use-of-force policy in August 2023. That policy requires de-escalation, bans chokeholds, establishes a duty to intervene when witnessing improper force by any officer, prohibits race, religion, or sexual orientation as factors in use-of-force decisions, and introduces a handbook covering all less-lethal force types.¹⁸

Large-Scale Joint Exercises

One of the clearest shifts since 2021 has been the move to large-scale joint training. On September 5, 2025, USCP and the U.S. Secret Service ran their third joint civil disturbance exercise at the James J. Rowley Training Center in Laurel, Maryland. More than 600 officers from nearly 20 agencies participated, with the National Guard and Department of Homeland Security observing.19

Officers rotated through seven scenario drills, including a simulated riot with protesters hurling blocks, bottles, and trash; a scenario requiring officers to protect a lawmaker while confronting an armed individual nearby; and extracting a lawmaker whose vehicle was surrounded by demonstrators. The exercise used drones for aerial surveillance, a Secret Service mobile command vehicle with satellite internet for cross-agency radio coordination, and bike and foot patrols alongside armored shield-and-baton units.²⁰

USCP Assistant Chief Sean Gallagher described the exercises as part of an effort to be “proactive and not reactive,” drawing on lessons from January 6. The agencies have also established a “dialogue unit” tasked with maintaining communication with protest organizers to help keep demonstrations peaceful.¹⁹

Pay During and After Training

USCP recruits are on the payroll from the first day of orientation. The department does not use the federal General Schedule; it runs a law-enforcement-specific LP scale. Starting base salary is listed at $81,552, rising to $85,627 after 24 months of satisfactory performance and promotion to Private First Class.¹ A separate recruiting page lists the starting figure at “nearly $83,362,” likely reflecting locality pay or a more recent adjustment.²¹ During the FLETC phase, housing, food, clothing, and equipment are also covered.²

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United States Capitol Police. Frequently Asked Questions – Benefits
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United States Capitol Police. Frequently Asked Questions – Training
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United States Capitol Police. Police Officer Academy Training
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Federal Law Enforcement Training Accreditation. Uniformed Police Training Program
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United States Capitol Police. Preparing for the Physical Abilities Test
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Roll Call. Inspector General Cites Glaring Problems Within Capitol Police
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NPR. Senate Approves $2.1 Billion Emergency Funding Bill for Capitol Police
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Government Accountability Office. U.S. Capitol Police: Actions Needed to Address Deficienciesa>
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ABC News. Capitol Police and Secret Service Lead Nation’s Largest Police Training Drill
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United States Capitol Police. Becoming a USCP Police Officer