The Bell County Sheriff's Office has lost their Jail Training license for two years. An investigation by a state commission found that the county's training officer was guilty of some wrong doing with training records.
That Lieutenant has since retired and a new training officer, Mike Perez, has been hired by Sheriff Eddy Lange.
New officers can still be trained. In fact the county is hiring 5 new Correction Officers.These officers can be trained by Bell County, but the county will need another agency to accredit them.
Jail Training Academy gives officers 96 hours of training, which again will still be done in Bell County. The county was under investigation while Sheriff Dan Smith was still in office. Sheriff Lange says he knew about it going into office, but says it could have been much worse
"They could have said your contract is terminated period. We're out of business. They did not do that. They said your contract is terminated with a two year suspension," said Lange.
Now the question is, who will supervise the county's Jail Academy? Temple and Killeen Police Departments have already offered to help and Wednesday morning Central Texas College contacted Sheriff Lange, bringing up possibilities of a not only a Jail Academy but renewing their Regional Police Academy.
Sheriff Lange with meet with CTC Friday, February 15th. He hopes to have an arrangement with one of the agencies within 30 days.
