Director of Media & Community Events Published: Wednesday, October 5, 2011 10:37 AM MST
PINAL COUNTY, Ariz. – With demand increasing for trained public safety personnel, Central Arizona College is poised to capitalize on the surging growth industry following an extensive evaluation of its emergency services, fire science and law enforcement training programs.
In the spring the director positions for CARLOTA (Central Arizona Regional Law Officers Training Academy) and for CAC’s fire science/emergency medical services program became vacant, creating a unique opportunity to do an internal study of the entire public safety program.
“We wanted to take advantage of this somewhat unique opportunity to review all of our public safety programs,” Dennis Jenkins, CAC’s president/CEO, explained. “We wanted to evaluate the programs, gather data on where the job growth opportunities are, and really see how best we can serve the community.”
The result has been painstaking months of reviewing research and collecting information that will help point CAC in the best possible direction. Increased competition for students and the evolving needs of the emergency services field demanded the college to take strong stock in its programs.
“It is time for us to contemplate and innovate as we look to the future of CAC, Pinal County and Arizona in a global context,” Dr. Georgia White, dean of professional and technical education, explained. “We needed to ask the hard questions – how do we best serve our constituents? How do we best use our resources? What is the best way to follow CAC’s strategic plan?”
The future trends spotlighted by the U.S. Department of Labor for the next five years cast a bright light on occupations such as police and sheriff’s patrol officers, sheriffs and deputy sheriffs; transportation security officers; loss prevention managers and specialists; and security guards, managers and management specialists.
In Arizona alone, a 10 percent growth in emergency management specialists, first-line supervisors of public safety professions, and firefighters, inspectors and investigators is being predicted.
Opportunities for correctional officers and jailers, detectives and criminal investigators, patrol officers, private detectives and investigators, security guards and protective service workers are also expected to jump by the same amount.
Demand also is being buoyed nationally by the need for post-secondary training, as well as the training of national security and disaster response team members. Locally, the business growth in Pinal County is spurring the need for more emergency management services.
CAC is looking at ways to enhance options for students desiring to enroll in these programs through tech prep and dual enrollment options, and by designing clear pathway for students to earn associate, and in many cases, four-year degrees.
“We also have taken stock of our inventory,” White explained. “We want to enhance our program by maximizing the use of our public safety resources.”
Central Arizona College’s facilities allow trainees to utilize a burn building, Christmas Tree prop, vehicle extrication props, repelling tower, driving track, shooting range and a Multiple Interactive Learning Objectives (MILO) unit.
Participants in some programs can take the Peace Officer Physical Aptitude Test (POPAT). It is an AZPost requirement that graduates of CARLOTA must pass POPAT that includes scaling an eight-foot wall.
CAC also has an exclusive license that extends in a 250-mile radius from the Superstition Mountain Campus to offer the Critical Care Emergency Medical Transport Program that was developed by the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Last year, CAC’s fire science program offered 152 credit hours of class time. The program amassed 1368 student credit hours taken that yielded 45.6 FTSE. The national curriculum is integrated with National Incident Management Systems (NIMS). Physical training for firefighters is integrated with the academy, while the program is looking at expansion of the Wildlands and Special Operations certification.
CAC currently has partnerships with Northern Arizona University for students wanting to go from an A.A.S. to a B.A.S. in fire science administration. The partnerships also include county, state and national accreditation and affinity groups, as well as ties to the Ak-Chin and Gila River Indian communities. A program of study with CAVIT also exists.
CAC’s emergency medical services program offers a total of 198 credit hours of class time. In 2010-11, students in the program collectively took 3,333 student credit hours yielding 111.10 FTSE. The program consists of Basic Life Saving (EMTs), Advanced Life Saving (Paramedics) that includes cardiac and hospital transfer training, and critical care for paramedics when dealing with adults and pediatrics.
Partnerships include Southwest Ambulance, Life Flight, Gila River and Ak-Chin Indian communities, and county, state and national organizations.
Founded in 1973, CARLOTA incorporates academics and officer preparation in the training of community police officers. The rigorous 18-week, 735-hour CARLOTA program (150 more than AZPOST requires) also allows students to use blocks of credits toward an associate of justice degree.
One option for Central Arizona College is to hire a public safety director to oversee the entire program as a way to build external relationships, recruit adjuncts and cadets, and maintain a nationally-accepted curriculum.
The public safety director also would serve as the Law Enforcement Academy director guiding the strategy and operations of CARLOTA. Coordinators of fire science and emergency medical services would be recruited as well.
Another option would be to hire a director for CARLOTA and full-time coordinators for the fire science and EMS programs.
A decision concerning the college’s direction is expected the week of Oct. 3 with implementation of the direction along with the scheduling of appropriate classes beginning the week of Oct. 17.
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