Congressman Doggett announces ALERRT Center grant

By T.Cay Rowe
University News Service
November 27, 2007


Lloyd Doggett
Congressman Lloyd Doggett today (Nov. 27) announced that the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) Center headquartered at Texas State University-San Marcos will receive an additional $1.35 million in federal appropriations if legislation now in the House of Representatives passes.

Doggett was at the ALERRT Center in San Marcos to make the announcement in person. “ALERRT is a unique Central Texas resource that is assuring safer schools and communities across America. And with these new resources, ALERRT can do even more--adding new meaning to the law enforcement mantra ‘to serve and protect,’” said Doggett, a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee and the House Budget Committee.

The funding comes in addition to $l.6 million in federal money already approved for the center to train National Guard members as first responders. The center will schedule 41 classes of 20 to 30 Guardsmen each beginning this week.

The new appropriations would fund the center’s Train the Trainer classes ($900,000) and Project Protect ($450,000), which trains schoolteachers and administrators for emergency situations.

The ALERRT program stands at the national forefront of active-shooter response by providing first-responding law enforcement officers from across the country with the skills to stop violence committed by homicidal/suicidal subjects, such as active shooters in schools, and domestic and foreign terrorists. The program has trained more than 13,000 law enforcement agents and certified more than 200 instructors since its beginning in 2002. 

The demand for training is increasing, says program director Don Montague. More than 200 agencies across the nation are on a waiting list for the ALERRT active-shooter course, with more requests arriving daily. Incidents such as the massacre last year at Virginia Tech increase the demand for ALERRT classes. In the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shooting spree, the Virginia Governor’s Office requested a “Train-the-Trainer” ALERRT program to teach 25 officers from several Virginia police agencies to be certified ALERRT instructors.

ALERRT is a partnership of Texas State University, the San Marcos Police Department, the Hays County Sheriff’s Office, Texas Engineering Extension Service, the Criminal Justice Division of the Texas Governor’s Office and the U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance.