Texas Certified Tactical Academy (TCTA) is a Texas Department of Public Safety-approved and licensed training academy. In addition to our brick-and-mortar location in Round Rock/Pflugerville, Texas, we are excited to offer an online version of the Texas DPS-RSD official Level 2 non-commissioned and Level-3 Commission training courses.
NOTE: TEXAS DPS HAS UPDATED THIS COURSE & CERTIFICATES EFFECTIVE APRIL 1ST, 2024
Our Level-2 and Level-3 courses are authorized to be taken online as Texas DPS-RSD regulations no longer require that it “must be given in a classroom environment”; they removed that statement years ago which opens the door to an online class for the Level-2 non-Commission course and the Level-3 Commission course (something other schools have been doing for years). That said, you still must have certified instructors give the in-person part of the Level-3 Commission class and Level-3 requal.
Our class is broken down into two parts:
Part 1– Online course material to read and study at home using our site, and…
Part 2 – In-person instruction is required at our school with our staff. Part-2 instruction required at our school will consist of Weaponless Defense, Baton, Pepper Spray, Firearms with range qualification, and the final state exam. There is a short quiz on this site but that is not the state exam which will be given at our school in person. All students must attend the dates we have posted on our schedule (and on your invoice), for completion of Part-2 and not attempt to pick other days.
This course is not intended to be the only official training your employees/security officers should receive. Texas DPS-RSD did not create this course to be an “end-all-be-all” of security training; you need additional training and experience far beyond this course to perform adequate security for any client as this is a basic intro to security course. Yes, it fulfills the Texas DPS requirements but again you will need more training to operate correctly, and safely in this industry.
Upon successful completion of the course and passing the final exam (given at our school in person), including range qualification and all classroom activities, students will be given a certificate of completion from us which is recognized and approved by Texas DPS-RSD and any licensed security company in Texas. The new course will have 67 questions, no longer 100 questions, but this means you cannot miss as many questions either as the standards are still 75% on the written exam.
This is the official Level-3 Commission security course:
- Texas Rules & Laws
- Verbal & Written Communication
- Incident Scene Security
- Situational Awareness
- Use of Force
- Conflict Resolution
- Defensive Tactics
- Firearms & Qualification
- Intermediate Weapons (Baton & Pepper Spray)
- Handcuffing
- Quiz (state exam given only at our office) 67 questions (multiple choice & True/False)
HANDCUFFING, PEPPER SPRAY, and BATON chapters will be covered more in detail in our classroom (during Part 2). Defensive Tactics (weaponless defense), and the Firearm chapters will have some basic course material to review here; however, there will be more additional and hands-on portions that will be done (required) in the classroom and/or the range once you arrive for Part-2.
NOTE: The new DPS Level 3 Commission final exam is not as easy (giveaway), as was the case with the prior exam. It is also not as easy as the prior Level 2 exam or an LTC class exam, they have changed the questions, wording, and terminology which requires the students to actually read the course material. Students who have had an extensive background in security or law enforcement often find themselves barely passing or even failing the new exam in our class because they elect not to read anything and just go right to the test and “wing it” and they are missing a large amount of questions on the final exam because DPS is using and looking for certain terminology with their questions and answers and not so much tactics or common sense-but again the terminology is what trips up a lot of students so you must pay attention and read the material.
There have been many students who do not read through the course material because they are expecting when they arrive at our class, we are going to cover the same course topics contained in our website (Part-1) and thought they would get a briefing/re-hash once they arrive- this would be incorrect. Students should not expect that Part-2 is a re-hash of Part-1, these are different topics. Students are to complete Part-1 online on their own including the seven-question quiz before arriving in our classroom. Students that do not complete the online portion may still attend the classroom portion of the course, but you will not be given a certificate until the online portion and classroom portion are both complete. Please do not wait until the morning of the in-person class to announce you had a problem with our website, students should be informing us of that well ahead of time.
