Lodi police seeks to upgrade gun range
For more than 50 years, Lodi Police Department officers have been using the same outdated, antiquated equipment to practice their shooting skills in a gun range located below the city’s parks department.
The bullet traps are made of steel, so bullet fragments that ricochet either hit the sand floor, causing a large amount of dust, or they are deflected back toward officers.
Bullets have also deflected into the ceiling, causing a massive amount of shredding and numerous holes.
“It’s not uncommon for us to find intact rounds 15 yards or so deflecting back towards the firing line,” Sgt. Tim Fritz said during a Tuesday morning shirtsleeve meeting with the Lodi City Council.
“There’s even some broken glass behind the firing line from rounds coming back at us,” Fritz said.
The ventilation system lacks proper filtration and circulation, as it is the original equipment installed in 1968, as are the bullet traps and shooting stalls.
A large amount of lead contamination has also been detected over the years, causing health problems,
Now, the department has plans to completely renovate the range and update it with modern, safe equipment.
What the department would like to do is replace the old, steel traps with rubber granular traps, and install a modern target system that provides more training scenarios.
“Bullets hit that rubber, they are de-energized and captured intact so there’s no de-fragmentation of the bullets, which causes less dust, which is in contrast to the current system in which the bullets are in the sand,” Fritz said. “The bullets aren’t hitting metal so there
is reduced noise, and the trap is capable of capturing 75,000 rounds, so that’s almost three times as many rounds as our current system (captures).”
The new target system would have five, roof-mounted targets that rotate 360 degrees, allowing for better training opportunities, and introducing decision making into range training with shot or no-shoot scenarios, Fritz said.
The department is working with Megatrain Developers, one of the nation’s leaders in range development, to design the new range.
Total cost is estimated at about $426,000, Fritz said, with $200,000 coming from the city’s general fund, and another $200,000 coming from the Lodi Police Foundation.
The remaining $36,000 would be absorbed by the department’s budget, Fritz said.
Police Chief Sierra Brucia said the renovation does not mean the department’s plans for a multi-agency outdoor range at White Slough have been scrapped.
Brucia said the foundation is still fundraising the estimated $2.5 million needed to build the range, which would be more of a facility for rifle training.
The range under city hall and the police department is primarily for pistol training, he said.
“White Slough (is) still something that’s a priority for our department, but as far day-to-day use, we have to elevate the indoor range to priority over the outdoor range,” he said. “The big issue for the outdoor range ... is how much we allow outside entities to partner with us. The more partners we have, the more freedom we have to do what we want to do. The more freedom we have costs more money.”
Brucia added the department is working on a plan on how to generate money so the White Slough facility can be leased to other agencies. Construction on that facility is expected to be completed in about three years.
Councilman Alan Nakanishi remembered when mayors from another country came to Lodi about 20 years ago, and one of the things they wanted to see on their visit was the department’s gun range.
“We looked at the gun range and it was terrible,” he said. “An officer was shooting and the bullet would ricochet off. What we did is we didn’t let those mayors look at our police because we were embarrassed.”
City manager Steve Schwabauer said minor changes were made to the gun range, but there has never been a full renovation like the department is now proposing.
Nakanishi said he was in favor of building a new indoor gun range.
“If we have funds available, this is something that’s been long overdue in my opinion,” Mayor Doug Kuehne said. “We’ve been talking about it for years, on upgrading this thing.”
Brucia said the police department will work with public works to develop a final plan and final budget that can be presented to the council for approval at a future meeting.