LAPD Gets Training Center Ready

A state-of-the-art Los Angeles Police Department training facility that drew heated criticism from City Council members as it grew in size and cost is scheduled to open next month.

Situated on a 44-acre parcel at the base of the Van Norman Bypass Reservoir in Granada Hills, the $29-million center includes three firing ranges, a four-mile driving track, a motorcycle course and a mock city scene where recruits and officers can practice handling emergencies such as bank robberies or hostage crises.

The center, officially called the Emergency Vehicle Operations Center and Tactics/Firearms Training Facility, brings together the best elements of similar training facilities from across the nation, said Sgt. Ron Moen, who oversees the emergency driving component.

“This is going to be superior to the others that I am familiar with as far as the buildings, classrooms and the track,” he said. “It is a compilation of the best elements of training centers from around the country.”

In time, police officials expect to train law enforcement officers from smaller departments such as Burbank, Glendale, Santa Monica, El Segundo and Torrance.

Though city officials support improved police training, some have criticized the piecemeal approach the LAPD took in adding amenities to the project.

What started as a $7-million driving track and a few temporary classrooms grew into a $29-million, can’t-get-any-better-than-this facility after police decided to add a firearms and tactics center.

The decision prolonged work by five months, swelled costs and required repeated appearances before the City Council by police officials seeking funds. The increased costs at the upgraded facility were covered by a $176-million bond measure to improve police facilities that was approved by voters in 1989.

Councilwoman Laura Chick, who chairs the council’s public safety committee, said the repeated requests for money became annoying. The public should have known the full extent of the project from the beginning, she said.

“The public needs to know what we are asking for, how the money is being used and how the project is being managed. We need to make changes before we go to the public, not after,” she said.

Nonetheless, Chick said she supported the new facility because it will provide officers with quality training while generating revenue from other law enforcement agencies that are expected to pay to train at the facility.

Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg has been critical of the project, saying that the additional money should have been spent on new police stations citywide and new locker rooms for female officers, some of whom must change into their uniforms in closets or hallways.

The councilwoman has said she blames herself and other panel members for not examining the cost increases more closely.

The firearms and tactics center originally was to have been built at the department’s Westchester training facility, but officials decided that the site was too small and too close to homes and businesses.

The cost of the training center began to swell when three shooting ranges, a mock city scene, observation towers, more track, auditoriums and administrative offices were added. An environmental impact report and design changes helped boost costs further.

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The expanded project was on schedule to meet its May 1998 completion date until Kuk Dong, the Korea-based parent company of American Kuk Dong, the construction firm building the project, collapsed in the Asian economic crisis in January, said City Architect Bill Holland.

Kuk Dong defaulted on the construction contract and the project’s bonding company, America International Co. of New York, stepped in and took over in February, Holland said.

Reduced work crews slowed construction as city officials solicited bids from new contractors to finish the job. “We lost five months time,” he said.

In May, American International Co. awarded Tutor-Saliba of Sylmar the contract to complete the project by late September, LAPD Sgt. Bill Dolan said.

“We got a quality job from American Kuk Dong. Unfortunately, things were out of their control,” he said.

Dolan walked through the training facility last week as work crews busily laid flooring, painted railings and caulked stairwells.

He strolled through two classroom buildings set around a central courtyard, three shooting ranges where up to 72 officers can take target practice, and the mock city scene with a bank, bar, restaurant, motel, single-family house and a gas station.

An observation tower provided sweeping views of the Santa Susana Mountains and the four-mile track below.

“One of the builders called the project ‘Disneyland for cops,’ ” Dolan said. “It is going to be a lot of fun, but it is also going to be valuable training.”