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[Jedi Guy]

54. It varies a bit from agency to agency. A podunk sheriff's department will differ from NYPD.

Some police academy training runs around 6 months but won't accept a candidate without at least an associate's degree in criminal justice or similar. In other cases, basic police training is 18 months, followed by a 6-month field training and evaluation period. Then there are advanced certifications that take two years and are only available after a candidate has been a cop for two years. But then you have the podunk sheriffs who can just deputize anyone they like.

Like a national database, nationwide standards wouldn't go amiss here, even for podunk sheriff's departments. I'm not sure if that would be constitutional, though, since policing is a local/state concern rather than a federal concern. I'd say the idea is still worth exploring, though.