New CB Tech program unveiled Thursday

Courtesy photo Retired Moses Lake Police Chief – and now CB Tech instructor – Dave Ruffin will talk about CB Tech’s new criminal justice program in his lecture Thursday night.

by CHERYL SCHWEIZER
Staff Writer | October 27, 2016 1:00 AM

MOSES LAKE — The new criminal justice program at Columbia Basin Technical Skills Center will be the subject of a lecture by the instructor at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Moses Lake Civic Center auditorium. Retired Moses Lake Police Chief Dave Ruffin will talk about the program, and what it means for the future of law enforcement.

Admission is free. The lecture is sponsored by the Moses Lake Museum & Art Center.

Ruffin said he will focus on the program and its curriculum, which has a lot in common with the training at the state’s Law Enforcement Academy. The CB Tech students don’t get the weapons training or defensive driving classes, he said, but they receive a lot of instruction from the rest of the academy curriculum.

Law enforcement agencies need more people than they can hire, he said, and have since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It’s not that standards have changed, but people have, he said.

The program serves as a good introduction for high school juniors and seniors who might be thinking about a law enforcement career, he said, and why it’s a good career. It’s also a way to introduce juniors and seniors to other places they can get training and education in the field, he said. Those range from the Explorer program, to reserve programs sponsored by individual law enforcement agencies, to two-year and four-year college programs.

Finding qualified candidates is just as much a challenge in Grant County and Moses Lake as anywhere, he said. “Nothing would be cooler than, five or six years from now, we start to get a return on investment.”

The curriculum shows students how to conduct an arrest (including how to handcuff a suspect), how to clear a building, how to investigate a crime. The students talk about ethics; Ruffin said there are real-life examples of what goes wrong when cops ignore the rules, and they are discussed in class.

Even if students decide against law enforcement, the lessons they learn can be transferred to other careers, Ruffin said. The emphasis on discipline appeals to many of the students taking the class, he said.

People who want more information can contact the museum, 509-764-3830.