Military boot camps and police academies have similar styles of physical training with recruits being pushed to their physical limits and subjected to extremely hard physical training. In both places recruits will be placed under physical stress and mental stress, such as harsh verbal communication from superiors and trainers. In both places the object is to weed out physically or mentally weak candidates and to get recruits ready for the mental and physical hardships they will face upon completion of their courses.
In a military boot camp you are subject to military law. This is a very different situation from the police academy where recruits are still subject to civilian law. In a military boot camp indiscretions are punished differently, such as being confined to barracks for a weekend. More serious transgressions can result in a court martial and can even result in a recruit being imprisoned in a military prison. In a police academy, any crimes committed will be handled with as they would be in any other workplace.
In both places specific skills will be taught and while some are similar many are very different. For example, police academy recruits will be taught driving skills whereas boot camp trainees will not. Both places will teach firearms skills but police firearms skills mainly revolve around handguns whereas military recruits will be trained on a variety of weapons, such as machine guns and hand grenades. In police academies, a lot more emphasis will be placed on interpersonal and negotiation skills, whereas military recruits will learn more field craft, such as navigation and camouflage techniques.
Generally, conditions at a police academy are more comfortable and not as spartan as conditions at a military boot camp. Police academies tend to be in or near cities while boot camps are conducted on military bases or in more remote areas. More communication with loved ones will be possible at police academies, whereas military boot camps will be more insulated from the outside world. Police academy personal accommodation will often be in dorm-like rooms, whereas boot camps will be in communal barracks.