The Academy
'We don't shoot to wound or shoot to scare. Our agents are trained to hit the body, the centre mass.'
Head of FBI Firearms Training The
Federal Bureau of Investigation made its name by tracking down and shooting notorious gangsters of the 1930s-men like Dillinger and 'Baby Face' Nelson. Today the FBI is one of the most famous and feared law enforcement agencies and feared law enforcement agencies in the world.
This film follows a group of young men and women receiving their basic training in FBI methods at the Academy, a training complex hidden away on a Marine base near Washington. Over 15 strenuous weeks, former accountants, teachers and lawyers are turned into plain-clothes agents. They are taught the latest scientific techniques of law enforcement, the psychology of interviewing a suspect, the best methods to use for a successful arrest, how to deal with kidnappers and how to use a gun with 'deadly force'.
British policemen also attend courses at the Academy. Can we learn something? Should we bring home some of these American techniques?
Film editor NICK RAYNER Horizon editor
GRAHAM MASSEY Producer
CHRISTOPHER LA FONTAINE Woddit On.... page 85