By June, the new Niagara County Law Enforcement Academy will be complete and taking in its first class of 30 students.
Earlier this week, Wayne Lynch, vice president of administration at Niagara County Community College, Sheriff Mike Filicetti and NCCC President William Murabito were on hand to give the Union-Sun & Journal a tour of the facility as it stands now.
“The great part of this is it will tie in to our school’s criminal justice program,” Lynch said. “So there will be pre-employment credits here and if they want to get their associates degree, you can transfer in with a certain amount of credit hours. It’s a direct link to our criminal justice program and as well as a critical function for the county.”
The 14,000 square-foot building contains two floors, though no stairs yet, and the drywalled bones of four classrooms, men’s and women’s restrooms and showers, a use-of-force and deescalation room, and offices for staff.
The second floor will be used for two purposes. One is a reality-based training area.
“And when I say reality-based, there’s usually someone in there with UTM rounds,” Filicetti said.
UTM rounds are soap bullets that hurt when you’re hit by them.
The layout of the training area will not always be the same, Filicetti said, and in this way recruits and working law enforcement officers, including correction officers, will be able to get whatever specific training they need.
Among special classes that will be held for correction officers, one includes instruction on how to bring uncooperative inmates out of cells.
“This isn’t just for recruits, I want to emphasize,” Filicetti said. “This is for any law enforcement in Niagara County.”
The other half of the second floor will be used by recruits learning defensive tactics such as how to take someone into custody.
One of the new resources that local law enforcement officers will be able to take advantage of is called VirTra. It’ll be set up in the use-of-force or deescalation room on the first floor.
“There are thousands of scenarios in this thing, to teach you to deescalate, but also to use the appropriate amount of force,” Filicetti said. “This is state of the art. Brand new.”
Funding for the $8 million academy came from the Niagara County Legislature, SUNY and Niagara Falls Police Department.