{"id":28232,"date":"2018-04-20T08:32:48","date_gmt":"2018-04-20T12:32:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=28232"},"modified":"2018-04-20T08:32:52","modified_gmt":"2018-04-20T12:32:52","slug":"chesco-opens-tactical-firing-range-for-first-responders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=28232","title":{"rendered":"Chesco opens tactical firing range for first responders"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_7008\" style=\"width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Caution-tape-ribbon-cutting.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7008\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-7008\" src=\"http:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Caution-tape-ribbon-cutting-350x238.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"238\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-7008\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chester County Commissioners Terence Farrell, Michelle Kichline and Kathi Cozzone with President of the Chester County Police Chiefs Association, Chief Shane Clark, and Director of the Chester County Department of Emergency Services, Bobby Kagel.<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">SOUTH COATESVILLE \u2014 Chester County Commissioners Michelle Kichline, Kathi Cozzone and Terence Farrell were joined by more representatives of the first responder community, elected officials and the public at this week\u2019s official opening of the county\u2019s $16 million Law Enforcement Tactical Firing Range, located at the Public Safety Training Campus in South Coatesville.<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Chester County Director of Emergency Services, Bobby Kagel and representatives from Chester County\u2019s law enforcement community took part in the program, with support from the county\u2019s fire and emergency medical services (EMS) communities. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In her remarks at the opening event, Chester County Commissioners\u2019 Chair Michelle Kichline said:<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cPublic safety is one of the key priorities that we, as commissioners, focus upon; how to keep our residents safe, how to keep them out of danger.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>One way to mitigate danger is through intensive practice and training, which is why it has been our duty to make sure the facilities, the equipment and the knowledge needed by all first responders is available.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cThe opening of this tactical firing range completes the full range of training facilities needed to fully prepare our emergency responders.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Commissioner Kathi Cozzone commented: \u201cEmergency service is a rewarding business, it\u2019s an exciting business, but it is also a dangerous business.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Every aspect of the tactical firing range was designed for emergency responders by police, fire and EMS personnel, and as with the academic building and the tactical village, this facility will help to train our emergency responders in the most sophisticated and technologically-advanced ways.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Commissioner Terence Farrell said:<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cWith the cutting of the \u2018caution tape\u2019 ribbon on this new tactical firing range, we recognize our training campus as a fully comprehensive facility that can be used by all first responder disciplines, separately and together.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cCombined training, in a single facility, in our own county makes economic sense.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Ours is now a Public Safety Training Campus that is being used by first responders in surrounding counties and states as well.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>They are travelling to us!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\"> Lieutenant Matt Herkner of West Whiteland Police Department spoke at the official opening on behalf of the law enforcement community.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\"> \u201cNo matter if you are a member of a small part-time or a larger full-time police department in the county, all officers will have the ability to participate in cutting-edge training at a state-of-the-art facility,\u201d Herkner said.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cNo longer will the norm be for municipalities to send their officers out of the county, or even out of the state for training.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>We now have a facility where we can participate in drills while being backlit by emergency vehicle lights, while facing moving and changing threat and non-threat targets, and while having the ability to move ourselves.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\"> \u201cIn creating this tactical firing range, our officers will receive the training they need and deserve so that, in return, they can provide the public safety that everyone in Chester County expects and is entitled to receive.\u201d<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The $16 million Chester County Law Enforcement Tactical Firing Range includes a 50-yard and 100-yard firing range, a driving simulator, a shoot-house that can be mapped out in hundreds of configurations and a firearms simulator that helps to teach \u201cshoot don\u2019t shoot\u201d decision making.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>With this third phase completion, the full Chester County Public Safety Training Campus includes an academic building, a tactical village, a tactical firing range, an alternate 9-1-1 center and a back-up Emergency Operations Center.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Since the opening of phase one in 2011, the Public Safety Training Campus has held 4,500 training events for more than 83,000 students.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SOUTH COATESVILLE \u2014 Chester County Commissioners Michelle Kichline, Kathi Cozzone and Terence Farrell were joined by more representatives of the first responder community, elected officials and the public at this week\u2019s official opening of the county\u2019s $16 million Law Enforcement Tactical Firing Range, located at the Public Safety Training Campus in South Coatesville.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[15,10169,6441],"class_list":["post-28232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-chester-county","tag-firing-range","tag-first-responders"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28232"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28233,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28232\/revisions\/28233"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}