Who trains Texas police officers, constables, and sheriffs? The state agency that certifies law enforcement officers is taking a closer look after questions raised in an NBC 5 investigation.
In our docuseries, "Against All Enemies," we showed how a group that teaches county sheriffs they have powers to block the FBI and other federal agencies, was able to host law enforcement training sessions that came with state continuing education credit from the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE).
That happened in spite of the fact that the training promoted what legal experts have described as false claims about the constitutional powers of sheriffs and police.
Now TCOLE said it is looking at ways to tighten its oversight of all training courses.
“Ensuring that that training meets certain standards, that’s very important to us, and again, this is giving us an opportunity to, [see] how we can do that better,” John Beauchamp, TCOLE’s interim executive director, said in an interview with NBC 5 Investigates.
Beauchamp is promising action to make sure disinformation is not spread through state-sanctioned training after the commission’s staff recently wrapped up its own months-long investigation, promoted by questions raised in NBC 5’s reporting.
Our docuseries showed how police officers and sheriffs from at least 85 Texas law enforcement agencies have attended continuing education courses conducted by the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, or "CSPOA."
CSPOA is a group founded by former Arizona sheriff Richard Mack, who is also a former board member of the far-right Oath Keepers. Mack left the Oath Keepers years before their involvement in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. He said he disagreed with the direction of the group under the leadership of Stewart Rhodes and did not agree with the group becoming a militia.
But interviews and training records NBC 5 Investigates obtained showed how, as leader of the CSPOA, Mack taught local law enforcement and county officials they can personally decide whether laws are constitutional and can block federal agencies including the FBI.
In our docuseries, constitutional law experts told us Mack’s claims about the powers of county sheriffs are false and could present a threat to the federal government.
“We can't have extremists misstating the law for their own purposes, get in and poison training for law enforcement. This is a national security issue,” said Brian Levin, with the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, in our January 2023 series.
As far back as 2021, two organizations that track extremism, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), and the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights (IREHR) complained to TCOLE about Mack's training. But after a brief investigation in 2021, TCOLE took no action, allowing police and sheriffs who attended the training to continue receiving state continuing education credit.
“I can't speak for why action wasn't taken then, but I can say when we had the opportunity to listen to these now, it gave us the chance to evaluate this under the standards that we have,” Beauchamp said.
Beauchamp became interim executive director after that 2021 investigation. He launched a new investigation after NBC 5 questioned the agency about messages taught in those classes, including some contained in course handouts we obtained.
In May, TCOLE released a summary of its findings and said its investigation found CSPOA training included claims such as, "… this is a war in which local, state, and federal agencies have been 'weaponized against you' through an 'incursion' of ‘state and federal bureaucrats’ that have been ‘infiltrated’ and ‘placed traitors and saboteurs in local authority.’"
TCOLE also found that the training included claims that sheriffs “have a duty to interpose on behalf of constituents' against 'state and federal bureaucrats' and other 'state agents' whose laws, orders or acts they individually deem as unconstitutional."
TCOLE found, "… there is no meaningful authority cited supporting these proposed legal theories." The agency notified the CSPOA in a letter (embedded below), "… similar content will not merit TCOLE training credit in the future."
Now Beauchamp said TCOLE will develop a plan to strengthen its oversight of other training.
Right now, TCOLE only vets the curriculum for state-mandated law enforcement courses. Elective classes are vetted just at the local level by state-licensed training academies at police and sheriff’s departments.
“TCOLE doesn't have the staff to vet every course that comes in. Again, that's why so much reliance is put in on our training providers,” Beauchamp said.
Beauchamp said the CSPOA training showed him TCOLE needs to keep a closer watch on elective classes, and on how those classes are advertised as eligible for TCOLE continuing education credit. The CSPOA did that on flyers used to advertise some of its training. Beauchamp worries it gives a false impression the state approved the curriculum.
Beauchamp said the agency is having ongoing discussions about this and may issue further regulations regarding the advertising of classes for state credit.
In a statement to NBC 5, Richard Mack called TCOLE’s investigation findings, "… inaccurate and misleading."
He wrote, "I am the first sheriff in American history to sue the federal gov't, take it all the way to the [sic] u s supreme court, and WIN. Is TCOLE saying that TX sheriffs and police should not be trained about this case? Is TCOLE saying TX peace officers should enforce "unjust laws?"
In the '90s Mack sued the feds over enforcement of the Brady gun bill. The Supreme Court ruled federal agencies could not force sheriffs to administer a federal regulatory program.
Mack teaches that the ruling gives sheriffs broader powers to block federal actions they see as unconstitutional. But constitutional law experts said Mack is overstating the case and that when there is a conflict between state and federal law the constitution says federal law is supreme.
TCOLE also expressed concerns about Mack's legal teaching, saying in its investigation, "…the (training) events invite Texas law enforcement officers to step into the roles of court and lawmaker because they are 'empowered to say what the law is.’"
Beauchamp said the agency has shared its concerns about the training with law enforcement officials across the state.
“We certainly communicated with all training providers, all agency heads, and all sheriffs in the state regarding this type of content will no longer receive law enforcement credit”, Beauchamp told NBC 5.
The CSPOA hosted a Texas training as recently as April in Quitman, the last of the events eligible for TCOLE credit.
Since TCOLE’s announcement that it will not allow credit for future training, Richard Mack has publicly criticized NBC 5’s reporting.
On a radio program, he called our docuseries a quote, "Hollywood production" and said, "It's just fabricated lies."
Mack later told NBC 5 he had only watched a small portion of the series, but he said both our reporting and TCOLE's investigation ignore the importance of his Supreme Court case.
In his written statement to NBC 5 Investigates he said, "In our training we ask each participant if they would have arrested Rosa Parks for not giving her seat to a white man. Are TCOLE and your news agency actually saying Rosa Parks should have been arrested because we should enforce all laws no matter how absurd or unjust they are? How are police going to protect the rights of the people if they do not know what those rights are? Our training provides that education. It is a peaceful and effective process for Sheriffs to know the [sic] U S Constitution.”
Legal experts NBC 5 spoke with said officers can use discretion when deciding whether to make an individual arrest, but that police do not have the power to simply nullify Supreme Court rulings or declare certain laws to be invalid.
Disputes over whether laws are constitutional are for courts to decide, the experts said, and not the role of county sheriffs.
