Abstract Research investigating police academy attrition and factors influencing it remains limited. This study examines organizational drivers of attrition using the 2022 Census of Law Enforcement Training Academies, analyzing organizational data from 488 US academies to predict six types of failure: injury, physical, academic, disciplinary, voluntary withdrawal, and overall attrition. Negative binomial regression revealed that higher stress environments and longer training hours predicted increased voluntary withdrawals and total failures. Greater emphasis on traditional policing instruction elevated disciplinary, voluntary, injury-related, and overall failures, while college-affiliated-based academies exhibited significantly higher academic failure rates, emphasizing the effect of institutional philosophies on cadet attrition.. Additionally, dormitory residence was protective against academic failure, while higher proportions of sworn academy instructors were associated with reduced physical failures. These findings offer actionable, evidence-based strategies for academy reform, and future research should examine their downstream effects on officer field performance.
AlSabah et al. (2026) studied this question.
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