The Facilities Information and Communication Committee is working to provide information on the South River Road Police and Fire Complex (Warrant Article 4) to the community prior to the March 12 Town Election.
Is there a Firing Range included in the facility? Why?
There is a Firing Range/Training Facility included in the Police Department facility. It is designed to meet the needs of a modern police station and to serve Bedford for the next forty to fifty years. Properly trained officers are of utmost importance and the current situation experienced by our staff is to only be afforded training during three days on two separate occasions per year. This occurs at a privately owned outdoor firing range facility. We are currently allowed at the range in small groups, such as one-on-one with an instructor, however, we are not allowed in large groups. The weather also makes it very difficult at times to provide proper training conditions. This presents problems getting all our officers trained unless we can arrange with other municipalities to use their facilities.
Having an indoor firing range would allow our Department and State Certified Firearms instructor to train officers more frequently and with no limits on accessibility. It would allow us to train new officers, to hold specialized training sessions and to train using firearm, taser and scenario training year-round without having to rely on other agencies. We ask our officers to respond to a variety of potentially life-threatening situations and it is vital that they are properly trained and react when called upon. They must maintain a heightened awareness and remain current on all training requirements, so they are prepared to handle any potential threat. A firearms training facility provides the ability to train as needed.