If you ask most veteran Law Enforcement Officers how long it takes to become a strong counter-narcotics or gang officer, you will find answers usually falling within a five to twelve-year range, and usually more specifically around ten years. That is a significant amount of time required to train and develop to become and effective operator. The same concept applies to the military as well. Our Staff Non-Commissioned Officers (SNCOs) who have a wealth of experience that they have earned over the last decade of non-stop deployments are easily comparable to those veteran cops.