THE Treasure Coast Public Safety Training Complex Indian River State College in Fort Pierce is known as one of the nation’s “most comprehensive” and “technologically advanced” sites for training law enforcement officers, firefighters and other emergency first responders .
The 50-acre complex has gained international recognition for its “proactive approach” to training junior cadets and seasoned recruits in disaster prevention, as well as its recovery and relief efforts related to natural and man-made disasters. human, according to IRSC officials.
Soon, thanks to a $3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, a planned expansion will put the training complex on par with other nationally recognized facilities, such as Disaster city at Texas A&M Universityin College Station, which attracts professionals from around the world for exercises on building collapses, rubble piles, transportation wrecks, natural disasters and more.
“Law enforcement needs advanced training, firefighters need advanced training, and they can’t go anywhere in this region to get that type of advanced training,” said Rod Gloverwho joined CIHR in 2021 as an explosives and counterterrorism expert with 37 years of experience in state and federal agencies, including the FBI and the U.S. Department of State.
“We want to attract officers from North Florida, Alabama and Louisiana, just like Texas A&M does,” Glover added.
The college’s $3 million grant comes from $4.4 billion awarded by the DOJ. Office of Justice Programs announced in September “to support public safety and community justice activities at the state and local level.”
“This significant investment will go directly to state and local programs that support victims of crime, support the safety and well-being of officers, build public confidence in law enforcement essential to public safety, and contribute to make all our communities safer.” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said when announcing the grants.
An additional amount of $952,751 DOJ Grants was awarded to several Treasure Coast law enforcement agencies, in part to fund DNA testing in unsolved cases in the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office; buy Port St. Lucie Police equipment for a new field force operations unit; and provide traffic control tools to Martin County highway patrol deputies.
Joint trainings, advanced courses, real-world scenarios
At IRSC, Glover said the training complex expansion will add several advanced training courses, including more confined space training, trench rescue exercises – with live response in indoor and outdoor environments – using life-size mobile props designed to mimic industrial, workplace, school emergencies and hazmat scenarios. A “post-explosion” bombing school will also be added.
“We can do joint training exercises, where you bring police, fire, emergency responders, emergency managers, everyone together at the same time to train, because it’s real. ..
