Police departments agree to use new College of DuPage facility

Seven suburban police departments have signed on to use a training center and shooting range that recently opened at the College of DuPage Homeland Security Training Institute.

Police departments from Downers Grove, Lombard, Addison, Bloomingdale, Geneva, Rolling Meadows and Northern Illinois University will be among the first to use the 39,714-square-foot Homeland Security Training Center, which opened in October.

The roughly $16.5 million facility has simulators for scenario-based training, a 911 call center classroom and a 50-yard tactical shooting range designed to hold up to 24 shooters at a time, COD officials said.

"The facility is truly state-of-the-art," said Deanne Mazzochi, vice chairwoman of the COD board of trustees. "It has features and attributes far beyond what a typical municipal budget could support. So we're very excited that the college is able to provide this type of cutting edge facility to all of the municipal agencies in our district."

The training center is just a few hundred feet from the Robert J. Miller Homeland Security Education Center, which opened in 2011. That facility features a mat room for defensive training, an emergency operations center and a "4-D" tactical village, where officers can simulate real-life emergency situations.

"Our facilities are among the best in the country and offered at affordable rates," said Tom Brady, director of the Homeland Security Training Institute.

COD officials said police departments that use the college's Suburban Law Enforcement Academy receive special member pricing of $180 per officer annually. In addition to getting access to the facilities, those departments get seats within professional development workshops.

"We have 24-hour access, seven days a week, allowing us to offer all-shift training, which allows departments to reduce overtime," Brady said. "We will always prioritize regional departments for gun range time. If a member department wants to schedule the same range days every year to fit their needs, we can accommodate them."

Mazzochi said she hopes more police departments partner with COD to educate and train their officers. Following the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, she said, "providing the best training possible to our first-responders is essential."

"I would hope that we can be a training partner for everyone in the district," Mazzochi said.