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Feature TYLA Project

Remaining Civil
By:  C. Barrett Thomas

The TYLA project “Remaining Civil: An Officers Guide to Responding to Non-Criminal Calls for Service,” was originally featured in April 2012.  Because it continues to benefit the law enforcement community statewide, it seems high time to update our readers on this project.   

The Remaining Civil project began with statewide research to determine the types and frequency of non-criminal service calls received by law enforcement.  Another aspect of this research was designed to examine how much training on responding to these calls was currently provided to officers.  The data received from the various agencies was staggering.  The amount of training provided to officers was negligible, even though non-criminal calls for service accounted for more than 50% of calls in some areas.  Based on the results of the research, TYLA set out to alleviate some of this shortfall by creating a new training package to teach law-enforcement officials the best practices for responding to non-criminal calls for service.  TYLA also produced a free pamphlet that officers could carry in their patrol unit as a reference when responding to non-criminal calls.  The course ultimately gained approval for TCOLE (formerly TCLEOSE) credit through many of the Council of Government offices across the state, and the initial presentations of the project in Waco and Abilene resulted in widespread success. 

To date, every community where the course has been offered has requested that the class be taught again.  So far, the course has been offered in McLennan, Taylor, Bosque, Nolan, Mitchell, and Fisher Counties, and it will be offered again in those locations soon.  The course will also be taught in Lubbock, Tarrant, and Dallas Counties in the coming year, and plans are in progress to offer it in Galveston County and several other locations in the Rio Grande Valley as well.  The course is free to any law-enforcement agency or training entity.  The agency desiring the course is only required to e-mail me, to request the course.  A local TYLA director will then personally set up the training date and time, free of charge.

It is TYLA’s greatest hope that this project will continue to alleviate some of the problems that are common when officers respond to non-criminal calls without proper training.  We are optimistic that rookie and veteran officers alike will benefit from this training that is desperately needed statewide. 

I must thank those who sacrificed so much time to make this project a reality.  It has been a monstrous undertaking, one that could not have been completed without the ongoing support of too many to name in a brief article.  You know who you are.  Thank you!

 

Barrett Thomas is a felony prosecutor in the 32nd District Attorney’s Office serving Nolan, Mitchell, and Fisher Counties. He also runs, The Thomas Firm, a small personal-injury and family-law practice in Sweetwater.