CENTER — Coffee with the Chief Saturday at the Center Methodist Church was a great success with 20 people attending. CoVid safety precautions were observed and the event was held outside. K9 Maverick demonstrated his “super sniffer” abilities with the help of local residents.

Chief Gene Meek has announced he will be starting a new program called “Leadership Center” and will incorporate it into some law enforcement-based training.  This group will be provided with some of the experiences and basic levels of training that are required of Center Police Officers.  Meek asks anyone who is interested in participating in the program to let him know.

The training topics will be initially open to Neighborhood Watch participants and due to current events, this training will start with the topic of application of force by police officers. Reading materials and a PowerPoint for the topic will be provided. The program will end with some FATS scenario-based training in Alamosa using small groups of participants (firearms training simulator = FATS).

Meek explained that FATS is designed to safely train officers in high-stress, rapidly evolving scenarios based upon training, experience and split-second judgement in confrontational situations. He will educate the first group of this “Leadership Center” participant group and have them using the FATS Aug. 15.

Because this is a developing program, Meek said he needs to make adjustments along the way, especially within the current CoVid precautions.

“I will be calling out our Mayor, Tony Garcia, to be in one of the first groups of Leadership Center so we can put him under pressure and see how he performs in some simulated lethal force encounters,” Meek said. “Please let me know if you have any additional ideas for me going forward.”