The cities of O’Fallon and St. Charles are coming together to build and operate law enforcement training center.
Construction of a brand-new $24 million law enforcement training center is already underway in O'Fallon.
“What I like about it is this was designed by police officers, for police officers, the elected officials, had nothing to do with it,” O’Fallon Mayor Bill Hennessy said.
O'Fallon Police Chief Frank Mininni said it's not just for their officers. Thursday, they signed the final agreement with the City of St. Charles to run the training center together for law enforcement officials in Missouri and beyond.
“There's no magic fence around St Charles County. Crime's gonna go where crime wants to go, and we have to be prepared to do that," Mininni said. "And having a training facility like this, where we can all be on the same page with consistent training helps us combat that for our residents."
St. Charles Mayor Dan Borgmeyer said he is excited for the future of law enforcement officers in the region.
“One of the things that's exemplary about St. Charles, O’Fallon, St. Peters, Wentzville, Warrenton is we all work together. We have a shared sense of community, we have a shared sense safety and we have a shared sense of progress,” Borgmeyer said.
The 87-acre property might not look like much right now, but it's going to become classrooms, a gun range and even an entire driving course.
“The public expects us to go out there and deliver at a certain level of service, and we can't do that on a video game. So if we can put a real track out there, real weather conditions, real speed, real stoplights, it's a win-win for everybody,” Mininni said.
A 200-yard gun range will allow officers to train for possible school shootings.
“So for our officers to be able to train at that distance, have confidence in their equipment, have confidence in themselves, to maybe be able to take a shot if they need to in a school shooter situation, it’s huge,” Mininni said.
St. Charles Police Chief Ray Juengst said a one-stop shop training center is not something they even have access to in Missouri or surrounding states.
“Right now, a lot of times, you're sending officers out of town. This is going to give us an opportunity with this facility to bring all that in,” Juengst said.
The gun range will be the first phase to open in 2025.