Brownsville Police Academy to set higher standards for incoming officers

BROWNSVILLE, Texas (ValleyCentral) — The Brownsville Police Academy received its state accreditation in June and has since begun training its inaugural class of future Brownsville police officers.

The Brownsville Police Academy currently trains five police cadets and one student undergoing fire department training for the city of Brownsville.

Brownsville Police Chief Felix Sauceda said he's been working on creating the police academy since he was first appointed police chief and was finally able to complete it this year.

Prior to the police academy opening, the Brownsville Police Department would hire officers through their co-op with Texas Southmost College's Police Academy. Sauceda said they plan to continue their collaboration with TSC while also focusing on hiring directly from their own academy.

The academy requires cadets to undergo more than the state-mandated 728 hours of instruction. Sauceda said the extra hours are meant to specialize future officers in what they'll experience in Brownsville.

"Since it's our personal academy and they're our personal hires, we're able to add more in the same amount of time," Sauceda said. "Some specialized training — we've added into areas like proficiency when it comes to shooting, we've also been able to add what we consider critical priorities which is use of force...and de-escalation of course because anytime we're able to de-escalate rather than take physical force against an individual, it's paramount to us as an organization."

Marco Betancourt is a cadet in the inaugural class of the Brownsville Police Academy. He said he's been training for roughly two months and feels grateful to be part of a historic class.

“We’re really trying to set the standard here for the future. We’re the inaugural class. We’re really trying to set the example for future classes to come," Betancourt said.

Betancourt noted the extra work they've put into de-escalation techniques and how it has benefited his training.

“Every situation is different, we learned during de-escalation that there are some words you shouldn’t use, and there are things you could say that you think are de-escalating but are actually escalating. It depends on the situation and we’re pretty much trained to be able to tell which to use and what’s appropriate at the time," Betancourt said.

The first class of Brownsville Police Cadets is set to graduate in late February or early March.

Chief Sauceda said he plans to have a new class ready to start the Academy immediately after the first class graduates.