Malia Riggs
Elmore Autauga News
The Prattville Police and Fire Departments will be receiving a joint training facility with all the latest bells and whistles for a whopping $4 million. The facility is projected to be done in 2025 according to Prattville Police Chief Mark Thompson.
“We’ve been working on this since I started here as Chief. The Fire Chief and I have been working to have a combined facility. Right now, we (Prattville Police) have one and a range and they have one. We will be building the new facility where the fire department has their current facility,” Thompson said.
This facility will be one of a kind to the tri-county area as typically departments such as fire and police house their own training facilities. This brings a distinctive unity to the emergency services that serve Autauga County.
“I haven’t seen a relationship like this with fire and police in a while and we’re just proud that we can have it here in Prattville. It’s not a competition. If we get something, they get something. We work so closely together. We have five medics on our tactical team, and we just have a very unique relationship with the fire department here. We work very close together and I’ve got a good working relationship with all the fire and city police officers on the street,” Thompson said.
This new facility will have multiple classrooms and training classrooms, one of which can hold up to 275 people. It will have state-of-the-art technology for training purposes, Thompson confirms.
A huge aspect of this new training facility will be geared towards live action scenarios. It will train the men and women who diligently serve Autauga County, to better prepare them for any situation.
The facility will not only be equipped with state-of-the-art classrooms but a firearms and training simulator, known as a FATS shooting simulator, Thomson said.
“They’ll be able to get a real life feel of what it’s like to do car stops, be in an active shooter situation, clear a building or anything like that. We are excited for the room we’ll have and what avenues this will open for us and the FATS simulator. We’ll be able to go in and utilize what we’ve learned in one classroom and actually test and hone our skills. It’s just another way to advance the officers’ awareness. They get a taste of what could happen and how quickly something could happen on the street,” Thompson said.
Thompson stated with this new facility they will be able to house other agencies for training scenarios as well as be able to house more classes for citizens regarding emergency preparedness. This includes emergency and first aid education for citizens and much more.
Thompson also confirmed that the Prattville Fire Department is a part of the Alabama State Fire College, and with this new facility, the department will be able to house additional training through the college as well.
“We are very thankful to the city for coming up with the funds for this long-range plan, and it’s been a plan for numerous years now. We are just extremely happy and excited about the future of what we can do with that facility and what training we can do for our officers, firefighters and the public,” Thompson said.
