Professional Development and Training

Each of the following units is tasked with a variety of functions that provide support to the over 1,400 employees of the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office, other Tarrant County Departments and other law enforcement agencies across the State of Texas.  Each of the employees you will find in the individual units is an expert at their job and we are here to assist in any way we can.

Professional Development is divided into sections: Training Academy and Background Investigations.  The first is the actual training of peace officers, detention officers and 9-1-1 operators from their basic courses up through their advanced courses.  We host several courses a year that range from Interpersonal Communication through Tactical/Swat and Gang Courses.  We average around 100,000 hours of student contact training each year.  Our training academy is currently in an approximately 21,000-square-foot facility located at 1500 Circle Drive, Suite 200.  We have five classrooms that are equipped with Audio/Visual components -- the largest capable of holding 100 students.  Our firing range is a 15 lane, pneumatic-controlled turning target system with an additional side-to-side moving target system.  Ranges for pistols are from 3 yards to 25 yards and up to 100 yards for rifles.

The second section is our Background Investigations that process applicants as future members of the Sheriff’s Office.  The background investigators also work out of the Academy location.  All applicants, including administrative personnel, are put through a rigorous background investigation to ensure only the best candidates become employees of the Sheriff’s Office.  All applicants seeking a position that involves a State license must meet all eligibility requirements set forth by the State of Texas and the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE).