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Southwest Indiana Law Enforcement Academy
100 E Walnut St
C.K. Newsome Building - Lower Level
Evansville, IN 47708
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  • Phone:  (812) 436-7938
  • Fax:  (812) 436-6033
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Southwest Indiana Law Enforcement Academy

SWILEA Academy Class 23-34 will begin with entrance PT testing on July 13th.  The official first day of this session will be July 17th. (Class Full).  The graduation for this session will be November 3rd (location TBA).

SWILEA Academy Class 24-35 will begin in January of 2024.  Due to new regulations on Academy hours, the exact start date and graduation are still to be determined, but entrance PT is tentatively set for January 25th with the official session starting on January 29th.  There are still slots available for this session. 

Registration for classes starting in 2023 will be handled by submitting a request with all recruit information to the SWILEA Commander at kkassel@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 tuition is $500 payable to the Evansville Police Department.
  • Mandatory academy uniforms and ammunition requirements will be sent to all participating agencies upon acceptance to session. 
  • 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 for solo patrol who can work anywhere in Indiana
  • Most instructors are officers and deputies who are actually working in the field they are instructing
  • SWILEA’s curriculum is approved by the Indiana LETB
  • Academy class size is capped at 32 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
  • SWILEA offers several days of scenario based training at off site locations for different types of training. 

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