Texas Border Business
By Selene Rodriguez
As part of South Texas College’s mission to provide affordable continuing education, STC encourages law enforcement agencies around the Rio Grande Valley to attend upcoming trainings and certifications at the Regional Center for Public Safety Excellence that could potentially help them save thousands of dollars in travel expenses and cannot be found anywhere else in the region.
“We often collaborate with the regional center to help provide a variety of trainings that otherwise would cost our department up to $1,200 per officer in travel expenses such as accommodations, mileage and per diem,” said STC Police Sergeant, George Barreiro.
He added that by having instructors from STC’s Police Department teach in-house some of the courses such as Patrol Rifle Instructor and Firearms Instructor, agencies pay less than $100, when it would cost over $500 with an outside provider, plus travel expenses.
“Because of the high-cost, we would only be able to send one or two agents out of state for training,” he said. “We open these courses to every agency because it’s a great opportunity to have more trained officers in the community at a lower cost,” he said.
Agencies from across the Valley take specialized training at STC all-year round in various areas such as law enforcement techniques, new technologies, conflict resolution, community engagement and legal updates.
“We often look at STC’s website seeking trainings that we rarely find close by; they’re all really helpful and allow us to keep developing our skills while staying close to home. It also saves our departments money that we can put toward more trainings and certifications,” said San Juan Police Department Interim Chief of Police Leandro Sifuentes, who recently attended the Analysis & Documentation of Medicolegal Death Investigations, a class designed for crime scene and death investigators, detectives or attorneys.
For many, these classes also represent an opportunity to network with their peers from federal, state and local agencies as well as school districts.
“Here in the Valley everybody knows each other. We have an opportunity to learn from each other and compare notes on how to deal with specific situations and scenarios unique to the RGV,” said Barreiro, during the recent Conducting and Managing Internal Affairs Investigations course.
Roberto Vela, campus coordinator for the Regional Center of Public Safety Excellence, emphasized the importance of continued training for the public safety sector and for law enforcement and fire personnel to stay-up-to date with the latest practices, ensuring they are well-prepared to handle diverse situations they might encounter in the line of duty.
“Training is continuously on high-demand, more and more agencies are starting to request classes because of how fast law, policies and technology advances in our society. We want to help our officers be more effective, maintain public safety and build trust with the communities they serve,” he said.
This month, STC is gearing up to provide a variety of courses around the Valley such as Crisis Intervention Training in Rio Grande City, First Responder Medical (FRM) Train-the-Trainer in Pharr and Incident Command System for Expanding Incidents in Weslaco.
Additionally, at the end of August, there will be a Valve and Hydrant Maintenance training offered to all fire departments across the region at STC’s Regional Center for Public Safety Excellence.
“One of our most popular trainings is the Undercover Techniques and Survival for Narcotics Officers course, which we will be hosting this month, as well as our Basic Telecommunicator training that we conduct several times a year,” said Vela.
Since its establishment in 2018, the Regional Center for Public Safety Excellence has continued to expand in size and technology, opening its doors to all first responders to make use of the college’s resources, which ranges from a traditional classroom to a state-of-the-art shooting simulator, skills pad or firefighting virtual reality technologies.
“We’ve taken our car fire and vent trailer simulators from Roma to Weslaco to help fire departments train their personnel. Similarly, the facility’s skills pad was also recently used by the Pharr Police Department for motorcycle training,” said Vela. “STC has many resources available that can help the region grow in the public safety field.”
For more information on upcoming trainings and programs offered at STC’s Regional Center for Public Safety Excellence, visit southtexascollege.edu/rcpse/ or call 956-872-4208.
