The Federal Law Enforcement Training Accreditation (FLETA) Board is pleased to announce it granted reaccreditation status to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Hazardous Evidence Crime Scene Operations Course (HECSO) at the May 15, 2025, meeting.
The purpose of the HECSO is to train FBI personnel to safely respond to and operate at hazardous crime scenes while identifying, collecting, and preserving hazardous evidence. Students of the HECSO are trained to the First Responder Operations Level as defined by OSHA 29 CRF 1910.120 (q)(6)(ii), “Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response”, as well as meet objectives for the Operations Level Responder as defined by the National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) Standard 470. The training environment includes traditional classrooms, science labs, and practical space both indoors and outdoors. The HECSO is a total of ten days (eight instructional days and two evaluation days.) The average number of students per iteration of the program is 24.
The FLETA Board is the accrediting body for all federal law enforcement training and support programs. To achieve accreditation, training organizations submit to an independent review of their program and/or academy to ensure compliance with the FLETA Standards and Procedures in the areas of Administration, Training Staff, Training Development, and Training Delivery. Accreditation is a cyclical process occurring every five years. Each year, training organizations must submit annual reports in preparation for reaccreditation, which is a new and independent review of the program/academy.