Travis County Sheriff's Office to offer active shooter training to local law enforcement

TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas (KXAN) — The Travis County Sheriff's Office will soon start offering active shooter training to local law enforcement agencies.

TCSO will start offering the specialized training classes to local agencies in March. The program is in response to Senate Bill 1852, which requires law enforcement officers to complete at least 16 hours of training for responding to an active shooter.

The sheriff's office said in a release it has selected 12 employees to serve as instructors for the program. They will have accreditation from the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training or ALERRT.

Sheriff Sally Hernandez and the Travis County Commissioners Court came to an agreement with the Austin Independent School District to use AISD's former Rosedale School campus as a training site for the program.

“It just makes sense that if we all learn together, we will communicate with each other better,
and respond using the same methods," Hernandez said. "I’m grateful to Austin ISD for working with us to secure the school and believe this effort will benefit each agency involved and the communities they serve.”

TCSO said it anticipates 800 officers from municipal and county agencies throughout Travis County will be trained as part of the program by 2025.