Contact: 903-533-2021

Sergeant Blake Lockhart is assigned to the Career Development Unit as the PTO Program Coordinator / Training Sergeant for the Tyler Police Department. The department strives to provide a professional standard of law enforcement to the community we serve. This is true not only at the recruit level, but is a continuous process throughout the careers of all our employees. Training is provided to accommodate department needs and to actualize the interest and concern the department has for the self-improvement and personal development of its employees.

In 2012, Tyler Police Department adopted an internationally recognized team-based training program for police recruits. This program is known as the Police Training Officer (PTO) Program. The PTO Program is designed to facilitate a higher degree of leadership development and is focused on developing officer skills through problem-based learning concepts. Following graduation from the police academy, new recruits are assigned to Police Training Officers (PTO’s) and are taught the technical and practical skills of becoming a police officer, along with how to utilize internal and external resources in the community to resolve real-life problems. The PTO program consists of several phases of training and evaluation that last a minimum of 19 weeks. This time frame may be extended by the Training Coordinator and/or Board of Evaluators as new training needs are identified and implemented.

Go to Tyler PD Training Website