Use of Force lab coming to Polk’s firing range
The state’s law enforcement trainers want to use Polk County as an additional place that police officers of all ranks can use to hone their skills for the worst case scenario: a suspect with a gun.
Polk County Police Chief Kenny Dodd said the Georgia Public Safety Training Center wants to expand outward from the Forsyth campus and bring a Use of Force lab to the firing range built locally and used by local law enforcement for training and keeping up with their firearms ratings.
The range has extra space, which has in the past been used by local National Guard vehicles as a parking place while in the past Public Works were contracted to repave their parking lot on Highway 27 South in Cedartown. Now that extra space at the firing range will get some extra fencing, and be able to use moveable walls to create interior spaces to practice for when suspects fire on officers, or they are forced to enter a building in an active shooter situation.
“You create an environment to train young officers on how to clear a building, or to deal with a suspect who is shooting back at you,” Dodd said. “We use simunition (simulated ammunition) and paintball rounds to practice so that while it might hurt a little bit, no one actually gets seriously injured.”
The state already has one of these labs setup to train officers young and old – and to allow for Special Weapons and Tactics, or SWAT teams – to practice tactics for a variety of situations. With conditional permission from the Polk County Commission during their May regular session, the lab will be setup here in the coming weeks.
“It is just great to be able to train young officers, and to keep SWAT teams up to date on their training,” Dodd said. “We want them to learn how to stay safe and clear of fire in these kinds of situations.”
Dodd said primarily fencing will be the only addition to the firing range, along with portable pieces used to create rooms and interior spaces in training. The state will be mainly responsible for the lab, but local officers will get to use the area as well when not in use.
Commissioners gate conditional permission because Dodd said that paperwork the board sought to limit the liability of the county when officers from other departments are using the facility if they were to get hurt during training exercises was being held up on the state level.
“They were supposed to have that back to me by this afternoon (May 8,)” Dodd said. He added that when he last checked for the paperwork around 4 p.m. that day, it had not arrived.
County Attorney Brad McFall suggested that commissioners approve the request from the state for the space so long as a hold harmless agreement is in place. It’ll limit what the county is responsible for, but when local officers are using the training space they’ll be carried on the county’s liability insurance and not the state’s coverage.