Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Cmdr. Kevin Huddle graduated from the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training’s (P.O.S.T.) Law Enforcement Command College Class 66 on June 4 in San Diego.
The California P.O.S.T. Command College is a graduate-level training program that focuses on the future and its challenges. Class 66, which was supposed to be 14 months long, took more than two years to complete due to delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The June 4 event was the first in-person P.O.S.T. graduation since the pandemic began. Huddle joined 22 other law enforcement executive and command leaders from law enforcement agencies throughout California in completing the course, which is only made available to a few attendees through a rigorous selection process.
None of the instructors in the program are from law enforcement, but instead come from a range of backgrounds including industry and academia.
Command College coordinator Bob Harrison called the course “a crucible of transformation.”
Keynote speaker Jennifer Tejeda, manager in Global Security for Apple and a retired police chief from Emeryville, California, said, “Training is the backbone of what we do, and the quality of training really matters.”
Tejeda stressed the need to focus on wellness for the human beings behind the badge, and for today’s law enforcement officers to look inward and take steps to help the men and women of law enforcement manage the corrosive effects of stress that are an inherent part of the profession.
“We are proud of Cmdr. Huddle’s achievement in graduating from this prestigious and important course that focuses on understanding the law enforcement and corrections challenges of tomorrow, and employing innovative approaches to address those challenges,” said Sheriff Bill Brown, who attended the graduation.
“For many years the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Office has been a leader in developing and using such approaches, and I have every confidence that Cmdr. Huddle’s learning experience will be of great value to him, to our organization, and to the people of Santa Barbara County,” Brown said.
Huddle joins a select few Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Office alumni from the California Command College, including the late Cmdr. Bruce Correll, Cmdr. Julie McCammon (ret.), Cmdr. Rob Plastino, and Chief Deputy Craig Bonner.