The partnership between South Plains College (SPC) and ALERRT (Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training) continues to show its value training hundreds of officers from agencies across the state and country.
During the SPC Board of Regents regular meeting in June, Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Ryan Gibbs provided an update regarding the partnership.
The agreement began with SPC and Texas State University which resulted in a ALERRT Regional Training Center coming to fruition at the SPC Reese Center. SPC became the first community college as well as the first recognized regional training facility in the state of Texas for ALERRT training.
“This is training that has come about unfortunately around the school shootings we have had. Specifically, Uvalde,” explained Gibbs. “These trainings are based out of the School Safety Center at Texas State University in San Marcos.”
All of the active shooter response training’s have been held at Building Three of the Reese Center Campus.
Gibbs added that the training’s are centered around providing first responders with the know-how to respond to mass-incident events.
Since June 2024 to May 2025, the training facility has had 353 students go through the various trainings offered. That is 59 unique dates of training, according to Gibbs.
“They are doing everything from clearing rooms to shooting “simunition” and utilizing the breaching facility,” said Gibbs. “Our welding instructors built a breaching facility within the building and to my knowledge is the only indoor breaching facility in the state of Texas…Everytime a new police officer comes through our facility they marvel at what we have set up.”
Gibbs attributed the outstanding work to the Criminal Justice Department including Dept Chair Professional and Energy Professor Law Enforcement Kenny Burns and Assistant Professor of Law Enforcement-Training Coordinator Mark Whittey.
“This is all best practices for school shooting response that is happening there at our Reese Center,” added Gibbs. “We have instructors that come in to do training’s from all across the country. That also includes police officers that come from all across the state.”
Texas has various active shooter training programs and mandates in place for schools and law enforcement.
These include mandatory training for school police officers and, more recently, all law enforcement officers, as well as specific training for school marshals and resources focused on civilian response to active shooter events.
The Texas School Safety Center plays a key role in providing resources and training, often partnering with organizations like ALERRT.
Currently, fourteen courses make up the ALERRT catalog: Active Attack Integrated Response (AAIR); AAIR Trainthe- Trainer; Basic Active Shooter Response Level ('Stop the Killing'); Level 1 Train-the-Trainer First Responder Medical Trainthe- Trainer ('Stop the Dying') First Responder Breaching; Breaching Train-the-Trainer; Low Light Train-the-Trainer; Exterior Response to Active Shooter Events (ERASE); ERASE Trainthe- Trainer; SolOfficer Rapid Deployment (SORD); Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events (CRASE) Train-the-Trainer; and Active Shooter Incident Management (ASIM). Detailed descriptions for each of these specialized classes are available on the ALERRT website.
The program as a whole has trained 248,000 law enforcement, fire, EMS, and emergency management officials nationwide.