The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, Artesia, New Mexico

In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill allowing the purchase and renovation of an old college campus in Artesia to develop FLETC-Artesia. Now, twenty years later, FLETC has flourished and grown.

Starting out with a 220 acre plot of land with five buildings, FLETC now has more than 300 buildings and over 3,000 acres in two areas. The number of people living and working at FLETC has grown. In 1989 there were 40 federal employees and in 2006, the number was near 600.

Now, courtesy of American Eagle Airlines, you can even fly into Roswell from Dallas and Los Angeles, a mere 45 minutes away from Artesia.

The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC)
FLETC is a component of the Department of Homeland Security, established in 1970. It provides basic and advanced law enforcement training for 87 federal agencies.

Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)
The Bureau of Indian Affairs is the oldest bureau of the United States Department of the Interior. The services provided by BIA include land management, education and law enforcement.

Tribal and federal law enforcement agents begin their BIA career with a 16 ½ week training session at FLETC-Artesia

Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
Established after the tragic events of September 11, 2001, TSA is responsible for security of the entire nation's transportation systems except maritime. All new Federal Air Marshals, law enforcement officials who covertly travel on air flights to protect passengers and the flight deck, go through 7 ½ weeks of basic law enforcement training in Artesia. Armed pilots, Federal Flight Deck Officers (FFDO) come to Artesia for six days of training.

Border Patrol (BP)
The U.S. Border Patrol is a part of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), one of the largest components of the Department of Homeland Security. Agents are trained at the U.S. Border Patrol Academy located at FLETC-Artesia. The curriculum has been developed by CBO and the instructors are experienced agents.

At the Border Patrol Academy, agents spend 55 days learning Operations/Law, Physical Techniques, Driver Training and Firearms Training. Agents who are not proficient in Spanish stay an additional 40 days to learn the language.