ROUND ROCK, Texas — Law enforcement officials with the City of Round Rock are inviting fellow community members to tour the new Public Safety Training Center Wednesday night.
Back in November 2016 ground first broke on what would become the new state of the art training facility. The $29 million, 65,000 square foot building was paid for by a bond approved by voters in 2013. However, according to city officials, this has been a plan in the works for more than a decade.
Some key features of the new facility for both police officers and firefighters include training offices and classrooms, an indoor shooting range, a driving skills course, a mock residential neighborhood and a five-story burn tower to best prepare for first responders for whatever type of call they may be sent out to.
"An officer needs to be prepared each and every day to go out into the field and deal with some hard criminals, but they also need to be prepared to just go deal with the public in general. So this facility bringing in the classroom and that type of training, and what you need to be prepared for going out in the streets," said Allen Banks, Round Rock Chief of Police.
Banks also explained that prior to building the training facility, Round Rock first responders often would have to travel across the state and country to do certain types of training.
"We're now going to be able to host a lot of that training here, which is going to save the tax payers a lot of money and that's one of the reasons we're excited about this facility opening up," said Banks. "If we train them we know what we're putting out in the streets and in our community. Our community demands excellence, fairness, honesty, integrity and so that's what we're giving, because we know we're training that way."
The Round Rock Public Safety Training Center is located at 2801 North Mays St.
The open house will run from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 19.