On Jan 28-29, the Corpus Christi Police Academy held training evaluations for their cadets at their new Oso Creek location, as well as on Del Mar College Oso Creek Campus. The scenario-based evaluations are supposed to simulate real life situations that officers must deal with in the field. Twenty-eight cadets from the 84^th class tested their knowledge and instincts on what to do in these stressful situations.

Cadets undergo about 1300 hours of training before they graduate. This evaluation puts together all that they have learned throughout the 34-week program. As cadets prepare to graduate in the coming weeks, Field Training Officers (FTO) want to see how they will respond under high-stress situations and give them as much feedback as possible.

When asked about the main focus of the training program Lt. Maria Huerta-Garcia said “Officer safety is our biggest priority.” She also stressed that communication skills are important for cadets to have. “Communication is the key to everything! They have to learn how to talk to people.” De-escalation techniques and learning how to respond to people in crisis are among a few of the situations where a cadet needs to effectively communicate, or the results could potentially be harmful.

 “They’re not going to know everything. Some people have never experienced stuff like this,” said Senior Officer Travis Pace. “That kind of culture shock of just getting yelled at or thrown into situations like this really prepares them for all kinds of stuff they might see out in the field.” He emphasized that in a fast-paced, high-stress situation, the cadets “need to be able to make those split-second decisions.”

The scenarios had a specific focus and allowed cadets to test their knowledge on things like suspicious vehicle calls, crowd control, lost children, disturbance calls, domestic violence, duty to intervene, responding to a person in crisis and more.

“Each scenario has an FTO that specializes in a certain area” said Huerta-Garcia. As cadets go through the scenario and debrief after, the FTO will let them know where they succeeded and where they went wrong. “It’s so they know exactly what they need to focus on as they prepare to graduate.”

In one of the scenarios, cadets were called as backup on a traffic stop. An arrest had been made, and as the officer was placing the perpetrator in the back of the police unit, a simulated fight between the two had broken out. The cadets who were focused on searching the car, had been too slow to notice the officer assaulting the perpetrator. They intervened and tried to de-escalate the situation, while also trying to correctly inventory the perpetrator’s car. The FTOs were adamant to remind them of the importance of being aware of their surroundings and in holding their fellow partners accountable.

Another scenario had to do with a call for a lost child. The cadets had to administer CPR on the child, as well as facilitate crowd control. They had to deal with teenagers recording the whole ordeal and making snide comments, concerned family members who had been called to the scene, and the stressed parents of the child. The importance of dealing with social media was stressed, as people will live stream a situation or post about it in community pages as the story is still developing, which could potentially disrupt an ongoing investigation. 

Senior Officer Antonio Contreras with the CCPD Public Information Office stated that the new training facility gives them more space to facilitate these training exercises, allowing them to contain the scenarios without outside interference. He also emphasized that the facility has been such an important upgrade, as the old Corona Drive location had limited space and amenities for the cadets to utilize.

Signs were posted in the parking lots and in the outdoor plaza area of Del Mar’s Oso Campus to indicate that police training was going on. The training began at 6 p.m. and went on until about 10 p.m. This time frame allowed for minimal disturbance to the cadets, as well as students who might have had evening classes at the time.

The actors who participated in these training scenarios came from the Police Explorers program and alumni of the Citizens Police Academy.

Anyone interested in learning about joining the Corpus Christi Polica Academy can learn more at https://careers.ccpolice.com/ or by contacting Senior Officer Imelda Rjasko at 361-886-2626 or ccpdrecruiter@cctexas.com.