The Colorado Springs Police Department is actively seeking a new training facility to meet the growing needs of the department. CSPD is under contract on a needs assessment to determine the scope and requirements of a new training facility. CSPD is considering two options, either to construct a new police training facility or purchase and retrofit an existing building to house the academy.
Background
The Police Department’s training needs are growing.
Ongoing recruit academies - To address attrition and to increase sworn officer numbers to authorized strength, CSPD recently began a ‘continuous hiring process’ and will start a new class of up to 42 police recruits every 15 weeks. This means at any given time CSPD will be training up to 84 police recruits in a facility not designed to accommodate those training needs.
Training enhancements - As a result of the 2022 Transparency Matters study that assessed CSPD’s use of force, and at the request of officers, several critical enhancements have been added to CSPD’s training programs. More space is needed to give officers hands-on, interactive, and practical training.
Continuous education & critical skills training - Each year, in addition to training new recruits, all 750 current officers receive continuing education and critical skills training such as de-escalation and reality-based training.
Police officers and the community are asking for more - Front line officers, command staff, and police-officer advocacy groups are asking for more training and better training facilities. A survey of sworn officers done by Transparency Matters indicated 80% of officers said they wanted more training. The Police Protective Association (PPA) 2022 survey supports this need as well as recommendations from the city’s Law Enforcement Transparency and Advisory Commission (LETAC).
CSPD needs to improve recruiting, retention, and response times.
The Colorado Springs Police Department is 80 officers short of authorized strength. This directly impacts CSPD’s ability to maintain a 10-minute or less response time for life-threatening situations. 2023 response times are at 14 minutes and 21 seconds, up from 12 minutes and 37 seconds in 2019.
Recruiting - Colorado Springs aims to recruit the best talent in the nation, and it is important to those interested in becoming a police officer to know CSPD provides the training that instills competency, consistency, safety, and confidence.
Retention - A new training facility will be a critical tool to address retention by providing the necessary space for continuing education and training of existing police officers.
Response times - A new training facility is estimated to get CSPD staffing back to full strength within two years, which will positively impact response times.
Funding
Cost
The total cost of the project has yet to be determined and will be contingent on findings from the needs assessment study. The cost depends on whether the City purchases and renovates an existing facility or builds on purchased land.
Initial estimates show that the total cost could be:
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$12.5M to $21M to purchase and renovate an existing facility, or
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$39.3M to $45M to purchase land and construct a new facility.
Future Operation and Maintenance
The City anticipates that the annual maintenance cost will be similar to the current facility. Although the new facility will likely be about twice the size of the current one, because it will be new or newly renovated, the maintenance cost per square foot is anticipated to be less. This will vary depending on the specifics of the new building and the components included based on the in-progress needs assessment.
Budget
The City has already budgeted $1.8M in Public Safety Sales Tax (PSST) funds in 2023 to go towards this project. The City is also planning on a one-time use of $500,000 to $1M in PSST reserve funds and a one-time use of City General Fund reserves in the amount of $2M to $4M. The remainder of the project would be financed with an ongoing annual payment from PSST and the City General Fund.
The City referred a ballot measure to the November 2023 election to ask voters for permission to retain $4.75 million in excess TABOR revenue to go towards this project. Ballot Question 2A fell short of the threshold for approval, however the City will still seek the necessary resources for a training center including PSST, grant funding and financing.
Current Facility
The current training facility is at its end of life.
End of life - A recent citywide facility condition assessment determined improvements to the training facility are the highest priority of all City-owned facilities. It is a financial liability with $4M in deferred capital improvement costs including ADA and HVAC upgrades. The assessment rated the existing building condition at 49 (target is 85 or above) and space use rated 1 out of 4, indicating ‘space constraints create operational issues.’
Need for centralized supply function - There is also a significant need to centralize CSPD’s supply functions into the same building with recruits, or where training is happening. Currently, because of space limitations, officers must go to multiple sites that are spread out across the city for supplies & equipment. These locations include the training facility, the supply warehouse, police headquarters, and the officers’ assigned division substations. This is inefficient, makes resource accountability challenging, and takes away from time officers could be providing police service to our community or receiving training.
Space is limited - This building has served CSPD well for many years. Training staff has rearranged furniture, converted storage rooms and closets to offices, and modified class schedules to accommodate the current needs. Regardless of what we continue to modify or convert, the size of our department and our training requirements have outgrown the current facility.
About CSPD Training
Why Training Matters
Well-trained officers provide excellent police service to the community – CSPD training instills competency, consistency, safety, and confidence in its officers so that they can serve the community well. Officers learn CSPD’s values and principles and how to be forward-thinking in providing community service. Well-trained officers develop community trust, build police legitimacy, and make our city safer.
Training is designed to lead to peaceful police-citizen interactions and reduced use of physical force – Officer education includes continual specialized training in the best practices of law enforcement such as the Police Executive Research Forum’s Integrating Communications, Assessment and Tactics (ICAT) model for defusing critical incidents and Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training. Training covers:
- de-escalation, including ICAT and other techniques,
- responding to people in crisis,
- emergency medical treatment,
- physical training,
- use of force training, and
- skill updates in tools such as the TASER, training simulator, driving techniques, and upholding constitutional law.
Much of this training is required by the state board that certifies public safety officers. However, CSPD requires nearly double the hours of training beyond what is required by the state to ensure officers are best equipped to provide exceptional police service to residents of Colorado Springs.
Recent Training Enhancements and Additional Needs
As a result of the 2022 Transparency Matters study that assessed CSPD’s use of force, and at the request of officers, several critical enhancements have been added to CSPD’s training programs.
Training simulator emphasizes de-escalation techniques - One example of hands-on interactive training is the department’s training simulator. The simulator, which was donated to CSPD by the Police Foundation of Colorado Springs, puts officers into high-stress, realistic scenarios to emphasize de-escalation techniques and prepare for real-world situations. The simulator currently features four rooms with projection screens capable of showing a variety of scenarios with which officers can interact. A larger facility with dedicated room space and the ability to readily arrange walls will allow CSPD to facilitate even more training scenarios.
Live-actor de-escalation training improves communication - Every officer of all ranks recently went through live-actor de-escalation training, with the goal of improving officer-citizen communication and reducing use of force. Since the current training facility lacks the necessary space, CSPD had to find and borrow a vacant building for the training.
Quarterly supervisor conferences align the department on critical areas - CSPD holds quarterly supervisor conferences to align all department supervisors in critical areas, including use of force review, pointing of firearms training, procedural justice, internal investigations, and active leadership, to name a few. These trainings are being held in makeshift classrooms at police headquarters because the continuing education room at the current facility is being used for recruit training.
Continuous review and evaluation of CSPD’s training program – CSPD has signed a contract with the Police Executive Research Forum to review and enhance its training in use of force, crisis response, de-escalation, and community interaction & communication. This initiative will likely result in recommendations for other training opportunities to further ensure officers are best equipped to provide exceptional police services to our community.
CSPD needs to upgrade its facilities to have the space and resources to address the training our community and officers are asking for, and to continue providing exceptional service.