Edmonton Police Service ask for $1 million upgrade to gun range

Police can’t keep up with new firearms training requirements if they are stuck with old facilities.

That’s the plea to be made before the Edmonton community and public services committee on July 6, following updated federal and provincial standards.

The Alberta Association of Chiefs of Police will require all police members to receive annual firearms training.

For city police, that means the number of patrol members trained annually will grow to 1,800 from 600.

But police say there’s a lack of physical space for training, not enough time for the training at police headquarters, a lack of consistent availability in private ranges, a reduced capacity at the outdoor facility with bad weather, too few firing lanes for carbines and sniper rifles, too far distances for recruits and sworn members to travel to get training and practice, and an affect on competencies due to lack of practice.

OUTDATED FACILITIES

Currently, the Edmonton Police Service has two training facilities — a short-range facility at police headquarters and the William Nixon Training Centre in east Edmonton, which has a capacity for 107 days of training yearly and hasn’t added capacity since it opened in 2000 to replace the Clover Bar Range.

The headquarters range has been closed since 2014 as it undergoes maintenance and is expected to reopen later this year, but with two lanes permanently closed.

Only patrol members, about one-third of the force, get annual firearm qualification.

EXPANDING FORCE

The new Northwest Campus — scheduled to open in 2018 — is set to include a new indoor range facility, which will include a tactical training house. Edmonton police studies state while computer-generated simulations are helpful, it is not a substitute for live-action firearms training.

The number of sworn staff working for the city police force has grown by 651 members since 2000, representing a 57 per cent

increase. Recruits undergo a 24week basic training.

While 260 patrol members are qualified to use carbines, the police hope to expand that number to 300 by 2019.