New Kane center boosts police shooting training, cuts travel time
With a pull of the trigger of his Glock 34, Ronald Grommes, recently retired Kane County sheriff's office lieutenant, fired the ceremonial first shot Thursday at the $1.88 million Kane County Regional Training Center.
Construction on the 6,700-square-foot facility, which features an indoor shooting range, meeting rooms, storage area and office, began in May and finished a month early.
"It's like throwing the first pitch at a baseball game," said Grommes, who helped plan the facility. "This project's been in motion for two years and nine months. It's always good to see the end result. Training leads to better quality service and lower liability. So it's a win-win for everyone."
The new facility will offer increased training options for some 250 sheriff deputies, court security officers and correctional officers, and eliminate travel time to an outdoor range in St. Charles that the county had used for several years since its range at the old sheriff's office flooded.
It also could save on some personnel costs; officers working the overnight shift had to be paid overtime to use the outdoor range during the day, because night shooting was not allowed, officials said.
The new facility contains a large training room where the sheriff's department has set up its computerized Firearm Training Simulator, which puts an officer in one of 200 scenarios and measures accuracy and reaction time.
"We can put our officers in a scenario," Undersheriff Pat Gengler said. "We can turn off the lights and make it pitch black (to test shooting with a flashlight)."
Before, the simulator was in a much smaller room at the sheriff's office and could only be used off hours because it was too noisy in replicating the sound of gunshots, Sheriff Pat Perez said.
Officials also said the shooting range offers more flexibility because it can hold police vehicles, and obstacles and targets can be moved around. The old range had predictable targets moving on an unreliable overhead track.
"(A squad car or SUV) could very well be cover in a deadly force situation. This is an ability we didn't have before," Perez said. "This allows us to train to be fluid."
Perez said smaller departments that don't have their own shooting ranges will come to use the new facility. Some of the departments include Campton Hills, Pingree Grove, South Elgin, Geneva and Batavia. Officers with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Fox Valley Park District also might use the range, Perez said.