Instructors

Erick Maldonado

Erick Maldonado is a veteran law enforcement officer with over 28 years of service with the Pima County Sheriff’s Department in Tucson, AZ.

Erick is proud to be the working supervisor of the PCSD K9 Unit in the Tactical Response Section of the department’s Emergency Response Division, where he supervises seven other K9 handlers and their assigned dual purpose dogs along with actively working his own dual purpose dog, K9 Rogan.

After graduating from the basic law enforcement academy in early 1995, Erick began his work as a certified peace officer in the Patrol Division. Quickly recognizing Erick’s natural leadership skills and unique communication style when interacting with other deputies, debriefing calls, and providing constructive criticism, PCSD appointed Erick as a Field Training Officer a full year before he was eligible to apply.

Erick has spent much of the rest of his career continuing to train deputies within PCSD as well as officers from many outside agencies while working in a variety of leadership and training roles.

In 1998 Erick joined the Pima County Sheriff’s Department SWAT team, marking the beginning of his passion for all things tactical.  For the next 10 years, Erick committed himself to reaching his highest potential as the best tactical operator he could become, as well as establishing recognized leadership within the SWAT team through his participation in real-world deployments as well as many trainings and certification courses, including:

  • Firearms Instructor

  • Defensive Tactics and Impact Weapons Instructor

  • Physical Fitness Instructor

  • Mobile Field Force Instructor

  • Taser Instructor

  • Less Lethal Instructor

  • Combat Handgun School

  • AZ POST General Instructor

  • Response to WMD Events School

  • Inland Search Management School

  • Planning Section Chief School

  • Explosive Breacher School (by Las Vegas Metro Police Department)

  • Detection and Recognition of Improvised Explosive Devices School

  • Explosive Breacher School (by Chuck O’Connor, subject matter expert)

  • Dignitary Protection School (by U.S. Department of Defense)

Erick’s vast tactical knowledge, leadership abilities, and teaching skills resulted in his designation as SWAT Team Leader. In that capacity, Erick trained law enforcement officers at the city, county, and state levels, as well as U.S. military personnel.

Before leaving SWAT, Erick built the Shield Operator and Explosive Breacher Program from the bottom up and was responsible for authoring many of the lesson plans the SWAT team still uses today.

In 2008, Erick decided to pursue his dream assignment: K9.

As soon as he joined the unit and became a K9 handler, Erick immediately put his administrative skills to work, using his experience from writing SWAT lesson plans to begin to create the K9 Unit’s first New Handler Training Program.

Despite his limited knowledge as a brand-new handler, Erick used the model he learned while assigned to the PCSD Training Center as the Field Training Coordinator, along with the information being provided to him on a daily basis by the K9 unit trainers working with him as a new handler, to develop the New Handler Training Program that is still in existence today.

Erick certified and worked two different dual-purpose dogs during his first 6-year tour in the K9 Unit. His prior tactical experience in SWAT, combined with the skills he was learning as a handler, led to exponential growth. Erick began training other members of the K9 Unit and implemented creative scenario-based training.

After promoting to Sergeant and spending several years supervising the busiest Search and Rescue Unit in Southern Arizona, Erick returned to the K9 Unit in 2018 to serve as the K9 Unit supervisor.

Since his return, Erick has actively grown the unit, building on its proud distinction as one of the most respected K9 Units in Arizona.

Under Erick’s supervision, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department K9 Unit earned the title of Top Patrol Agency at the 2021 Desert Dog Police K-9 Trials and Tough Dog Competition at the 2022 Desert Dog Police K-9 Tr.

Erick completely revamped the New Handler Training Program and created the PCSD K9 Unit’s first Unit Trainer Training Program.

Erick has certified with two additional dual-purpose dogs after returning to the Unit in 2018 and currently serves as a Unit Trainer and is a certified NPCA Instructor.

Erick has over 20 years of combined SWAT and K9 experience, has logged thousands of missions between the two tactical assignments, and has received numerous awards and accolades during his law enforcement career.