Bond funds go to police training
County public safety projects underway too
New Harris County law enforcement facilities are one step closer to breaking ground after Commissioners Court early last week moved forward with a list of projects, including cuttingedge spaces for officers to train for high-water rescues and active shooter incidents.
The slate of projects is funded by a $1.2 billion bond package voters approved in November 2022 that earmarked $900 million for roads, $200 million for parks and $100 million for public safety. Now the county has completed a plan to spend the public safety dollars on projects that are expected to improve training for law enforcement agencies not only in Harris County but also around the region.
Though Harris County has a number of competing, high-priority public safety challenges it needs to address — including corrections facilities that are out of compliance with state standards — residents want to see officers receive more and better training, according to Harris County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Mike Lee.
“They have high expectations of law enforcement, and rightfully so. They want them to be trained well,” Lee said.
However, Lee said, Harris County’s current training resources are outdated, outgrown and in some areas non-existent. To train officers to rescue resi
dents in flood waters, the county sends them to a private facility in Georgetown.
For active shooter training, they ask to borrow facilities in nearby counties.
Sometimes they use abandoned schools until they’re demolished.
Now, with Harris County building its own facilities, Lee said the shoe will be on the other foot.
“We expect when these projects get completed, we’re going to get those same requests,” Lee said.
Training facility
The demand for Harris County to build an active shooter training facility grew even stronger after the state passed legislation last year in response to the Uvalde school shooting requiring all law enforcement officers in Texas to receive the training, Lee said.
The new building in Humble is expected to cost $12.6 million and include a classroom, a controlled simulation area and a secured area to store weapons.
The Sheriff ’s Office has struggled to find locations since active shooter training damages buildings.
“Right now, we’ve been doing it by just going around and knocking on doors begging for locations,” Lee said.
Swift water facility
The $7 million building will significantly expand the county’s capacity for preparing officers for flood rescues.
“It’s really going to be a gamechanger when it comes to training our first responders in this area,” Lee said.
To understand why the county needs to practice high-water rescues, look no further than last week’s flooding. First responders rescued hundreds of residents in the greater Houston area.
Currently, the county sends deputies to a private facility three hours away to practice extracting people from a submerged vehicle in a swift water tank. The training costs around $1,000 per officer.
Even the owner of the facility suggested that the county could save money by constructing its own building, Lee said.
Once it’s completed, law enforcement officers around the region will be able to train at the Harris County building.
Additional projects
A $15.2 million precision driving course in the works as well. Though the Houston Police Department has trained on a driving course for decades, Harris County law enforcement agencies do not have a track to practice high-speed pursuits.
The facility where the county processes all vehicles used in crimes is slated for much-needed upgrades.
“It looks like a gas station out of the 1960s,” Lee said of the existing space.
The Sheriff’s Office firearms complex is getting a $3.2 million renovation. Though numerous law enforcement agencies rely on the facility for firearms training, the county never actually finished building it in the first place, Lee said, so the additional funding will allow completion of the project.
Another $7.6 million will go toward building facilities for the newly-added Sheriff ’s Office patrol district, which is part of a county effort to reduce response times to 911 calls by breaking up the existing patrol districts into smaller geographic areas.
The public safety projects will go a long way toward making up for a lack of county investment in law enforcement facilities over the past couple of decades, Lee said, adding that rank and file officers have been reluctantly optimistic about the promised projects.
“Of course they’re happy, but they’re also like, ‘Eh, we don’t think it will ever happen. They never do this for us.’ But now they’re starting to see it,” Lee said.