Which U.S. federal, state, or local police departments have formally hosted foreign military or police trainers on U.S. soil?

1. What the sources actually document about international police training

Federal reporting and academic summaries show that U.S. government agencies—State, USAID, DOD and Justice Department programs—have prioritized training and equipping foreign police forces, funding and sending instructors to countries including those in Central America and elsewhere ^{[2] [3]}. The Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs discusses programs that send U.S. law-enforcement personnel overseas to instruct foreign police and, conversely, frames exchanges as a two‑way process in which officers also “broaden their horizons” by traveling ^{[1] [5]}.

2. What the Los Angeles Times reporting says — intensive international ties, but mostly outbound

Investigative reporting on the LAPD shows a pattern of formal delegations, study trips and training relationships with foreign security forces—including documented trips to Israel, and training exchanges tied to philanthropic funding—but the Los Angeles Times frames those activities as LAPD personnel visiting and training abroad or studying foreign tactics rather than as foreign military or police units being formally hosted to train inside Los Angeles facilities ^[4].

3. Domestic gatherings and professional exchanges — not the same as hosting foreign military trainers

National convenings of police‑academy directors and interagency training symposiums have been hosted in the U.S. by municipal departments and academic programs—examples include gatherings organized with participation from the Metropolitan Police Department and the New Orleans Police Department—yet the cited coverage characterizes these as domestic professional conferences with wide participation rather than explicit programs where foreign militaries or foreign police units were formally installed as trainers on U.S. soil ^[6].

4. Military schools and training centers — potential sites but no sourced claim they hosted foreign trainers

U.S. military police institutions such as the U.S. Army Military Police School at Fort Leonard Wood are centers for training military police and have broad exchange histories, but the available snippets describe their role in developing U.S. MPs and do not supply sourced claims that specific civilian police departments formally hosted foreign military or police trainers in U.S. civilian facilities ^{[7] [8]}.

5. Gaps in the public reporting and why that matters

Congressional reviews and GAO reports document the scale of U.S. training for foreign police and note coordination issues, but those documents focus on who the U.S. trains abroad and program funding; they do not compile an authoritative list of U.S. law‑enforcement agencies that have formally hosted foreign military or police trainers on U.S. soil, leaving a reporting gap on inbound hosting arrangements ^{[2] [3]}.

6. Two plausible alternative readings and institutional incentives

One plausible reading is that most formal training flows outward—U.S. agencies send instructors overseas—so instances of foreign forces training on U.S. soil are either rare, ad hoc, or embedded in classified/multi‑agency programs not covered by the sources; an alternative is that municipal exchanges (study tours, conferences, one‑off demonstrations) have included visiting foreign instructors but were not documented in the sampled reporting as formal hosting arrangements, and political sensitivities can suppress disclosure ^{[1] [4] [2]}.

Conclusion

The collected sources substantiate a robust U.S. role in international police training and numerous local departments’ international ties, but do not provide corroborated examples in which named U.S. federal, state, or local police departments are documented to have formally hosted foreign military or police trainers on U.S. soil; further reporting or access to program records would be required to produce a definitive list ^{[1] [4] [2] [3]}.