Lodi PD proposes partnering with Delta College on shooting range

Apr. 5—Lodi Police Department officers must participate in handgun and rifle qualification tests every year, and while they can train in a facility for the former here in town, they must travel about an hour away for the latter.

For nearly the last decade, the department has been developing its own public safety training facility to reduce costs associated with travel and site rental fees.

The 20-acre training center, to be located northwest of the White Slough Water Pollution Control Facility on Interstate 5, has an estimated price tag of $8.6 million.

During a Tuesday morning Lodi City Council shirtsleeve meeting, police officials proposed partnering with Delta College to help fund the project, in exchange for allowing the school's police department to use the training center as well.

Chief Sierra Brucia said the partnership made perfect sense, given that 80-85% of the department's officers have either attended or graduated from Delta College and its Peace Officers Standards and Training academy for the last three or four decades.

With the project being a training facility, Delta already has the instructors needed to conduct training, as well as the staff and infrastructure to collect fees and enroll students, he said.

"It really is going to become what I hope is a world-class training facility in our area, which is going to draw law enforcement officers from all over, at least from the Central Valley, and in some cases, the state," Brucia said.

According to Tuesday's staff report, the police department requested a training facility in 2007, but funding was not available.

The department began working on its own project for a new facility in 2012.

Lt. Kevin Kent said officers undertake handgun training at a downstairs range within the Elm Street department.

However, they must travel to Galt, Linden or Fairfield for rifle training, which can cost as much as $500 per officer per day, he said.

"We need a minimum of 50-yard range in order to qualify annually for rifles," he said. "Currently we're having to go out and find other facilities to use. The facility we already have cannot be expanded down below, and it's maxed out at 25 yards."

Kent added the department does not have a permanent location to set up its virtual reality training simulator, nor does it have a proper facility to detonate explosive devices in the city.

Rather, he said, officers have had to ask residents to use their properties, or use a trailer inside the department's K-9 yard on Lockeford Street to detonate explosive devices.

In addition to the downstairs gun range, Kent said the department uses its Rick Cromwell Community Room for other training sessions, as well as Hutchins Street Square, the Lodi Grape Festival, Bond Manufacturing (former General Mills plant) and both Lodi and Tokay high schools.

Officers also use an Emergency Vehicle Operations Course at the Alameda County Sheriff's Office for required training every two years, he said.

Travel is a two-and-a-half hour round trip that costs as much as $1,500 per officer per day.

"With Delta, in partnership, they would be able to help us organize and run people through an EVOC course to get the most bang for our buck, and be able to get the most for something out of a new facility," Kent said.

Tammy Morrell, Delta's POST Academy director, said while an EVOC program is in place at the school, students must travel to Patterson or Crow's Landing in Stanislaus County for training, arriving there at 8 a.m. and not returning to campus until about 4 p.m.

In addition, the POST Academy uses Stockton Police Department's gun range on Navy Drive for firearm training.

She said that if Delta and the city partnered on a new facility, both agencies could use the site literally every day of the week.

"We are excited," she said. "We feel like we would make good use of the facility and we believe it's a great opportunity for Delta to have a presence in Lodi, which we've been trying to do for as long as when I was a student at Delta, which was a long, long time ago."

According to Tuesday's presentation, the Lodi Police Department has spent $337,440 on the project. Expenditures have included engineering, design and environmental studies, Kent said.

City manager Steve Schwabauer said other funding for the facility would come from the city's general fund and electric utility, and Delta staff said it could contribute $1.4 million from the pending sale of its property near Liberty Road in Sacramento County.

Brucia said he has already received inquiries from other agencies about the facility's timeline, which plans a build-out in three phases between 2024 and 2026.

He added that renting the facility out to other agencies could generate much-needed revenue for both the city, the college, and the department.

"We're hearing from agencies from very far away that would come up and use the facility," he said. "That allows us to recruit, it allows us to hopefully retain our own employees here instead of having them lateral, or transfer, to other agencies that already have these kinds of facilities."

"We appreciate Delta's partnership. It's much-needed," Mayor Mikey Hothi said. "I can't believe they have to go to Patterson for their EVOC classes. This could really make Lodi a hub for some of these recruitment opportunities."

Because Tuesday's meeting was a shirtsleeve session, the council did not take any action on the presentation.