Round Rock Police move forward with safety training center expansion
ROUND ROCK, Texas - After the deadly terror attack in New Orleans and two officer-involved shootings in a week, police are pushing forward with an expansion to its safety training center.
The public safety training center is only about six years old, but the police already need more room.
Round Rock police said it's already the biggest one in Central Texas. In fact, they said very few agencies in the state even have a training center to begin with.
The current training center is behind the public safety building. It’s a mini city, of sorts, made of wood and tarp, which can easily move around to mimic real buildings in Round Rock.
Just five years after opening, voters approved about $14 million in bonds to expand this center.
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"We knew that we would expand at some point in time, but we didn’t realize it would hit us so fast, and we’ve had an abundant growth here in this city," said Round Rock assistant police chief Willie Richards.
A new training facility with classrooms and a track will be the latest addition.
"We’re going to get a high-speed track that you’ll see over my left shoulder that will go all the way back around through the rest of the property," said Richards. "It’s roughly 70 acres."
A generator will go in too, just in case Texas loses power again during a winter storm, like Winter Storm Uri in 2021, because major disasters or casualties are what this cinder block city is built for.
"When we’re training new staff, we’re dealing with new obstacles that come in the path from learning experiences that happen around our country," said Richards. "We can bring the officers together with the fire department, with our federal partners, and other state partners, and we can train together to get prepared for if that ever came to our area."
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All this comes after the deadly terror attack in New Orleans on New Year's Day, killing 15 and injuring 30 others.
"Being able to get in front of it with training and tactics and lessons learned, we’re able to better hopefully circumvent anybody wanting to come and target us," said Richards.
Just last year, Round Rock grieved the loss of two mothers in a mass shooting at the Juneteenth festival. Richards strongly believes his officers' training at the center prevented more deaths that night.
Even just this week, police and SWAT responded to a deadly officer-involved shooting off Westinghouse Road and I-35.
"Having that advantage to get prepared and to be equipped as far as the knowledge base of how it goes and how to encounter if it ever comes and building that trust with the public that they know that we’re prepared," said Richards.
They are expecting to break ground on the additions this time next year.
The Source: Information in this report comes from reporting by FOX 7 Austin's Lauren Rangel.