Contact Us

Southwest Indiana Law Enforcement Academy
100 E Walnut St
C.K. Newsome Building - Lower Level
Evansville, IN 47708
Get Directions  | Location Details
  • Phone:  (812) 436-7950
  • Fax:  (812) 436-6033
  • Staff Directory

Topics of Interest

Department Home

More Information

Southwest Indiana Law Enforcement Academy

Academy Class 20-26 starts January 13th 2020, and graduation is May 1st 2020. (Class Full)

Academy Class 20-27 starts June 8th 2020, and graduation is September 25th 2020. (Class Full, Evansville Police Department Recruits Only)

Academy Class 20-28 starts October 26th 2020, and graduation is February 26th 2021.

Registration for classes starting in 2020 will be handled by submitting a request with all recruit information to the SWILEA Director at Skleeman@evansvillepolice.com.  Recruits must be full time sworn officers/deputies at the time the request is submitted.  Departments will be notified in a timely manner of the recruits that have been accepted. Notification of registration by the agency does not automatically guarantee a spot in the academy.  Agencies will be notified if they have or have not been accepted based on the number of agencies desiring spots and the number of spots available.  That determination is usually not able to be made until approximately 2 months from the start of the upcoming academy.

Cost to attend:

  • SWILEA IS TUITION FREE
  • Mandatory academy uniforms and ammunition
  • SWILEA has an agreement with The Kunkel Group to house non-commuting academy students for $1200 each for the full 16 weeks
  • SWILEA will no longer be able to accept part-time Officers or Deputies.  All recruits must be full-time sworn Officers/deputies.
  • SWILEA does NOT accept officers or deputies that serve their agencies in a Reserve status. 

A brief overview of SWILEA training:

  • 16 weeks or approximately 550 hours of training (8a – 4p, M – F, holidays off)
  • Classroom instruction combined with scenario based/sims style training
  • SWILEA is geared toward training officers/deputies who can work anywhere in Indiana
  • Instructors are officers and deputies who are actually working in the field they are instructing
  • SWILEA’s curriculum is approved by LETB
  • Academy class size is capped at 20 students.  This allows for ample one on one instruction with the students.  It also allows the academy instructors to get to know each student on a personal basis.
  • SWILEA students are trained and/or certified in SFST, STOPS, TOPS and NIMS ICS 100, 200 and 700
  • SWILEA will have two sessions per year starting sometime in January or February and July

Major areas of training covered at SWILEA (including the six mentioned above) are:

  • Report writing
  • Domestic violence
  • Criminal, misdemeanor and traffic law
  • Firearms (handgun, shotgun and patrol rifle)
  • Patrol techniques
  • Building searches/active shooter
  • Water safety
  • Crime scene
  • Narcotics
  • Defensive tactics
  • EVO
  • Working around Police K-9s
  • EMS awareness
  • Crash investigations