Sacramento Regional Public Safety Training Center
2022-2023 Program Review

The unit currently consists of three full-time training coordinators, one program developer, and a cadre of over eighty adjunct faculty who are subject matter experts (SME). All have years of experience serving in law enforcement, courts, correctional services, and fire services. SRPSTC also manages Instructional Service Agreements (ISA) with local and state law enforcement and fire agencies who utilize their cadre of instructors to deliver approved curriculum from our catalog of public safety classes. All of our ISA instructors must meet minimum standards required to serve as contract instructors.

 Our program's purpose and function focus on 1) preparing students for a career in law enforcement, courts, corrections, and the fire service, 2) providing them opportunities for continuous professional development, and 3) enhancing their public safety education for career development and advancement. Courses are certified by the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST), Standards and Training for Corrections (STC), the State Fire Marshal’s Office (SFT), and the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG). These regulatory agencies require adherence to minimum training standards; incorporate legislative and emergency mandates; and ensure compliance with program management specifications; and regular content review. Furthermore, courses are regularly audited by the regulatory agencies for quality assurance. 

SRPSTC courses provide students with state-wide occupational-based curriculum that is designed for those who are entering and currently working in law enforcement, correctional, courts, and fire services. Regulatory agency certifications and oversight facilitate student acquisition of contemporary and relevant industry knowledge and skills. Courses meet or exceed minimum required training hours for classes with standardized curriculum, and all courses may be enhanced with hours and evolving topics. Our regional partners work with us and our advisory committees to support incorporation of best practices in de-escalation, concepts of procedural and social justice, cultural competency and humility, critical thinking, and real-world experiential problem-solving activities. Faculty regularly participates in networking and recruitment activities within their areas of specialization and inform students of internships, job openings, and industry-related community forums and workshops. Students complete in-house course and instructor evaluations at the conclusion of each class and provide recommendations for course content revision, instructional methodology, and desired instructional materials and equipment. Evaluations are shared with program faculty in furtherance of instructional and program excellence. 

Past Program Review 

While 5 goals were outlined in the previous review, annual planning consisted of one primary and ongoing objective: Connect students to people, programs, and services as an integrated educations experience. SG1: Students first through the hiring of additional staff to connect students to each other and professional growth opportunities to strengthen workforce collaboration. What follow incorporates specific recommendations, as delineated in the SRPSTC’s Instructional Program Review Executive Summary.

Goal #1: Strengthen curriculum review and update process to stay current in industry trends, State and National curricula changes, State and National accreditation standards and guidelines and program specific student learning outcomes. Goal achieved.

The Curriculum Committee adopted our recommendations for an abbreviated review process for SRPSTC revision proposals in order to meet time-sensitive industry demands and accreditation standards. Courses now move through the Tech Review process then to the full committee as Consent/FYI agenda items. With the committee’s consent, the course proposals move to Catalog status in Socrates. SRPSTC curriculum has been revised to reflect special pre-requisites, enrollment limitations, changes effected due to legislative mandates and emergency orders from the Governor’s Office.

Goal #2: Monitor student achievement scores provided by the State and National agencies and integrate changes as necessary to maintain the high level of achievement and improve our response to these changes. Goal not achieved.

There is no single website that tracks achievement scores. However, Job Placement Rate Data required for the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) 2022 Annual Report indicates student rates, by fiscal year:

o  2017-2018: 98%

o  2018-2019: 96%

o  2019-2020: 97%

o  2020-2021: 91%

Goal #3: Continue to improve existing facilities, equipment, and instruction, to maintain our student success level. Goal achieved.

Improvement to existing facilities consisted of installing shades in the larger classrooms to enhance visibility of projected media, setting up two classrooms as computer labs, and re-fitting the SRPSTC mat room with high shock absorbing mats. Classroom projection equipment was replaced, as needed. Purchases to support student learning and success included laptop computers for SRPSTC’s non-affiliated academy students and regulatory agency testing and security requirements; ballistic vests, first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) mannequins, instructor training kits; range trauma kits; and firearms. Faculty have obtained instructional certifications in specialized subjects in order to align with regulatory requirements. Faculty have also participated in networking and recruitment activities with industry partners, facilitated student participation in industry-related community forums and workshops, included students in advisory committee meetings, and collaborated with Design Technology and outside entities to develop academy recruiting videos for social media distribution.

Goal #4:  Add additional permanent staff to the SRPSTC to reduce our reliance on temporary personnel. Goal not achieved.

SRPSTC’s focus shifted from adding permanent staff to replacing positions, and we have yet to do so. SRPSTC experienced the departure of two full-time faculty coordinators and full-time classified staff since the last program review. Instead, temporary staff and adjunct faculty either filled these positions or workload was re-distributed on a priority basis. The fire coordinator position remains unfilled since 2018 despite multiple recruitment efforts, jeopardizing fire program certifications.

Goal #5: Develop a registration system for our SRPSTC courses that serves the needs of our customers but doesn't let us lose students we've held on a hold spot. Goal achieved.

We refined our registration process to significantly reduce “TBA” registrations to minimize “No Shows” while serving the needs of the students in our region. In doing so, SRPSTC strengthened the ability to quickly respond to agency needs for additional training classes and, to some degree, special requests for agency-specific presentations.

Program Strengths

Public safety is an ever-changing and dynamic environment, and SRPSTC faculty and staff have the established ability to provide training “on demand” and with very little lead time. SRPSTC’s over 80 adjunct faculty serve more than 300 local, regional, state, and federal law enforcement, courts, and corrections agencies and maintain current in their areas of expertise. Strong and collaborative relationships with regional partners and regulatory agencies position us to integrate evolving and urgent industry-related topics into existing curriculum and to launch Experimental courses to address training needs in our service area. Both ensure our alignment with the college’s mission to provide an academically rich, inclusive environment that inspires critical thinking, learning and achievement, and responsible participation in the community. SRPSTC continues to meet department set standards for student success and exceed the overall success rates of the college

Challenges

Enrollments

According to the February 14, 2023, Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) blog post titled California’s Notable Declines in Law Enforcement Staffing, the state has experienced “a sizeable drop in staffing across all law enforcement agencies between 2020 and 2021,” a decline that portends long-term trends. While California lost 2,100 sworn officers in 2021, a decrease of 2.6%, the PPIC also notes a 13.3% decline in officers since the 2008 economic downturn. New hires have not kept pace with retirements and resignations of personnel and with significantly lower staffing levels, agencies have had to re-prioritize training needs and budget allocations. SRPSTC classes are delivered face-to-face due to the interactive nature of the training, and the majority of courses require interpersonal engagement and/or physical skills demonstrations and assessments. Courses are presented in full 8-hour time blocks across consecutive days and many courses consist of consecutive weeks of training. SRPSTC enrollments have gradually declined over the past 7 years, which reflects the statewide decline in public safety hiring and retention. The corresponding decline in SRPSTC’s enrollments significantly accelerated with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and suspension of all classes from March 2020 through July 2020. Although SRPSTC resumed on-ground classes in August 2020, LRCCD district policies were not representative of public health orders and organizational policies in other counties and jurisdictions. Some agencies did not require the wearing of masks, vaccinations, or medical/religious waivers in lieu of masks. Those agencies rescinded their enrollments. Despite LRCCD COVID-19 mitigation measures, SRPSTC suspended in-progress classes early on due to student-reported COVID exposures and subsequent positive test results. This jeopardized our training capacity as none of our face-to-face courses are distance education certified by regulatory agencies. Prior to COVID-19, there had been little demonstrated need for distance learning options and few adjunct faculty perceived the benefit of developing or converting lecture-based components of existing classes to facilitate them. Regulatory requirements for online/hybrid course certification include synchronous delivery and significant technical support.

Time and Personnel/Private Industry Competition

The SRPSTC does not have adequate time/personnel to keep up with the continuous and quickly evolving nature of curriculum that needs to be updated or developed to meet industry training needs. The increase in California wildland fires has hampered our ability to fill the full-time fire coordinator position. The private sector has actively recruited individuals with extensive experience in the fire service to serve as consultants—and with lucrative compensation. This has hampered collaborative outreach efforts to attract students into fire academies. It has also placed our certification as an Accredited Regional Training Program (ARTP) in jeopardy. Further, the college competes for qualified instructors and other POST presenters in specialized subject areas (e.g., persons experiencing mental health crises), with private industry having more flexibility to generate /offer online and specialized courses at higher rates of compensation.

Internal Registration/Enrollment Processes

SRPSTC courses are not scheduled in the traditional semester-based format. Courses range from 8 to 1058 hours (.25 units to 25 units) and are usually scheduled in 8-hour increments over consecutive business days or on nights and weekends. Some are presented over the course of 2 consecutive semesters. The SRPSTC Administrative Office manually processes registrations and enrollments submitted by individual students and agency training coordinators who register multiple students for multiple classes at a time. This process is time consuming for SRPSTC staff, agencies, and ISA partners. Enrollments can be complicated by last minute cancellations due to agency needs, public safety emergencies, or court subpoenas. When this occurs, agencies may substitute personnel up until the first day of class which then requires on-site applications, registrations, and enrollments which impacts instructional time. ISA partners who conduct training classes for immediate /emergency needs but find that time constraints impede registering larger numbers of students. For example, one of our ISA partners held an emergency Skills and Knowledge class for over 800 officer-students from the region over a two-week period in June 2020 which would have accounted for 6,576 positive attendance hours. During the LRCCD mandatory vaccination period, SRPSTC on-site classes reverted to the college’s online registration process to ensure compliance with district policies. While this facilitated a stream-lined process and minimized intrusion into instructional time, it imposed constraints on agencies and continued to require follow-up by administrative staff for last minute student substitutions.

Instructional Technology to Support Knowledge and Skills Acquisition

SRPSTC has been conservative in its pursuit of technology to supplement students’ acquisition of skills in de-escalation, procedural and social justice, critical thinking, decision-making under stressful conditions, and in evidence collection. Some of these needs are met via regulatory agency web-based applications. Some technologies that could enhance public safety training remain in their infancy. For example, in May 2019, SRPSTC beta-tested a Force Options Simulator (FOS) and a Virtual Reality Simulator (VOS) for POST. SRPSTC was selected as one of fifty training presenters that POST awarded a VOS. However, system flaws were extensive, and the VOS in its current inception has been scrapped as a viable training tool. Program faculty have been reticent to utilize the Canvas platform to web-enhance courses. This is primarily associated with the extensive required reading and testing materials, and with the assignment of multiple instructors for different topics within lengthy courses.

Facilities Limitations

SRPSTC courses are primarily held at the McClellan Center and the Northern California Regional Public Safety Training Authority (NCRPSTA). Where McClellan Center has classroom and computer labs, the NCRPSTA offers classrooms, gyms/mat rooms, a firing range, and crime scene investigation outpost. Our Basic Law Enforcement Academy is housed at the NCRPSTA, with a dedicated classroom and staff offices. The Academy and all of our physical skills classes are conducted at the NCRPSTA which gives priority to partner agencies. However, it is also open for use to external public safety personnel. The competition for training space intensifies throughout the calendar year and inhibits the SRPSTC ability to provide performance-based classes upon demand at either location. Storage space for physical skills training equipment is also limited.

Equity Gaps

SRPSTC’s student population remains intricately linked to public safety recruitment, hiring, and retention. Male whites continue to represent much of our student population. As an example, data collected from the POST Data Warehouse informs us that male whites continue to be the dominant ethnicity represented in law enforcement followed by Hispanic/Latinos, and also consistent with program data, women are seeing only minor gains.

Influencing Factors

Environment

Enrollments had already been faltering due a notable decline of interest in public safety careers and an increased rate of industry retirements and early departures. Other external factors that impacted enrollments include the surge in California wildfires that redirected fire agency resources away from training, nationwide protests following the May 2020 homicide of George Floyd, and other police killings of African Americans. The public’s demand for police legitimacy and accountability resulted in prioritizing of curriculum updates for specific courses to include de-escalation, cultural competency, and social justice training and education. Regulatory agencies also became more prescriptive. For example, POST now requires all course certifications be updated every two years and has implemented a Quality Assurance Program to evaluate faculty, training equipment, and facilities. The accountability measures added to workload creep for faculty, administrative, and classified staff.

SRPSTC’s collaboration with industry partners and regulatory agencies has enabled us to continue to offer relevant and contemporary public safety training at the basic, intermediate, and advanced levels. SRSPTC student success rates between fall 2014 and 2022 have consistently exceeded 90%:

Males: 98% and above

Females: 96% and above

Ages 18-24:       91% and above

Ages 25-39:       97% and above

Ages 40+:          99% and above

Student success rates between fall 2014 and 2022 by ethnicity:

African Amer:   92%- 98%, 97.1% average

Asian:                  94%- 99%, 97.1% average

Filipino:              91%- 100%, 97.2% average

Hisp/Latino:       96%- 99%, 97.1 % average

Multi-race:         94%- 100%, 97% average

Native Amer:     86%- 100%, 96.5% average

Oth Non-wht:    89%- 100%, 95.4% average

Pacif Islander:   92%-100%, 98.4% average

Unkn:                  98%- 99%, 98.8% average

White:                 97%- 99%, 98.3% average

Our enrollment declines mirror that of public safety’s ongoing hiring and retention challenges, and persistence is key for increasing those levels. Overall, our course scheduling had been effective. However, the 6-month suspension of class due to COVID and preclusion of COVID positive students and staff illuminated the need for SRPSTC to offer alternate instructional modalities. When we returned to on-ground instruction we prioritize delivery of high liability courses required for police, fire, corrections, and court personnel. This resulted in a competition for training venues beyond the SRPST/McClellan Center site. We will continue to update our courses to reflect training needs. We also need to develop new strategies to attract new and returning students.

SRPSTC’s ideal future is to be the in-demand regional provider of public safety training. SRPSTC has already begun working with industry and community partners to integrate diversity, equity, and inclusion into existing curriculum and align with ARC’s mission. 

SRPSTC’s effectiveness can be enhanced by focusing on student success through providing contemporary courses and access to training. The unit intends to work towards these objectives by

1.    Hiring a full-time Fire Coordinator and support staff to ensure ARTP certification

2.    Refreshing our advisory committees’ memberships to identify and address regional training needs

3.    Revising existing curriculum and/or creating new curriculum reflective of industry needs

4.    Supporting faculty professional development in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion

5.    Simplifying the SRPSTC registration and enrollment process

Success will be measured through increased enrollments and student success metrics.

Our intended enhancements will support ARC’s commitment to social justice and equality by attracting traditionally underrepresented students to our entry-level classes, and encourage and support the career development of culturally competent public safety personnel to serve our region.