The IAED Emergency Telecommunicator course taught in Law Enforcement II is a national certification. In South Carolina, all law enforcement, including city and county dispatchers, have to be certified through the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy. This may have been difficult in the past for the student, as IAED and SCCJA are not affiliated. However, in 2021, SCCJA added another basic telecommunication equivalency course. Anyone with the IAED ETC Course can now request an equivalency review. In other words, the SCCJA now accepts the IAED ETC Course Curriculum for review. Then the IAED Certificate, and other pertinent paperwork, will be sent to SCCJA. Equivalency exams usually take five business days.  

 

In May of 2022, Gov. Henry McMaster signed a bill into law that lowers the age requirement for correctional and detention officers in South Carolina. Now, individuals as young as 18 can be hired and begin training. Lowering the age requirement has reduced the amount of vacancies at jails, detention centers, and correctional facilities in South Carolina. At least one of our graduates of the Law Enforcement Program, from 2023, currently works in detention.