Basic Law Enforcement Training (BLET)
Basic Law Enforcement Training (BLET) is designed to give students essential skills required for entry-level employment as law enforcement offices with state, county, or municipal governments, or with private enterprise. The course is comprised of 36 separate blocks of instruction to include topics such as Firearms, Driver Training, Motor Vehicle Law, and Arrest, Search and Seizure. The BLET course is filled with practical exercises and an extensive ethics section that is woven throughout the training experience. The BLET course has been thoroughly researched, legally reviewed and contains the most current law enforcement information available. The Commission mandated course takes approximately 16 weeks to complete.
Upon successful completion of the BLET State Comprehensive Written Examination, the BLET trainee has one year from the date of the State Comprehensive Examination to be duly appointed and sworn as a law enforcement officer in North Carolina. However, most agencies include an additional period of field training. The North Carolina Justice Academy develops and maintains the BLET curriculum.
The requirements for admission into a BLET course are:
- Must be a citizen of the United States;
- Must be 20 years of age;
- Priority admission is given to individuals holding full time employment with criminal justice agencies;
- Must provide to the BLET Director a medical examination report, properly completed by a physician licensed to practice medicine in North Carolina, a physician’s assistant, or a nurse practitioner, to determine the individual’s fitness to perform the essential job functions of a criminal justice officer.
- Must have a high school diploma or high school equivalency. High school diplomas earned through correspondence enrollment are not recognized toward the educational requirements.
- Must take a standardized reading comprehension test and score at the tenth grade level or higher within one year prior to entrance into Basic Law Enforcement Training.
- Must provide to the BLET Director a certified criminal record check for local and state records for the time period since the trainee has become an adult and from all locations where the trainee has resided since becoming an adult. An Administrative Office of the Courts criminal record check or a comparable out-of-state criminal record check will satisfy this requirement.
- Must have not been convicted of any of a felony or: a crime for which the punishment could have been imprisonment for more than two years; or a crime or unlawful act defined as a “Class B misdemeanor” within the five year period prior to the date of application for employment unless the individual intends to seek certification through the North Carolina Sheriffs’ Education and Training Standards Commission; or four or more crimes or unlawful acts defined as “Class B Misdemeanors” regardless of the date of conviction; or four or more crimes or unlawful acts defined as “Class A Misdemeanors” except the trainee may be enrolled if the last conviction occurred more than two years prior to the date of enrollment; or a combination of four or more “Class A Misdemeanors” or “Class B Misdemeanors” regardless of the date of conviction unless the individual intends to seek certification through the North Carolina Criminal Justice Education and Training Standards Commission.