State Representatives Jamie Boles, Pat Hurley and Allen McNeill joined Department of Public Safety Secretary Frank Perry and other officials in a ribbon-cutting ceremony July 31 for a new public safety training center in Moore County.
The North Carolina General Assembly allocated $10.4 million to renovate 14 of 24 buildings of the former juvenile facility, Samarcand Manor, and build a much-needed firearms training range.
When renovations are complete, Samarcand Training Academy will provide correctional, in-service, law enforcement and advanced law enforcement training starting in the fall of 2015.
Perry said the Bureau of Labor statistics identified the most dangerous jobs in America, and law enforcement was the first most dangerous and correctional work was second.
“This work is extremely difficult, Perry said. “We must train them the best way we can. We don’t want to be a Charleston, a Chattanooga or a Ferguson.”
Samarcand Training Academy is located in Jackson Springs on 430 wooded acres. When complete, Samarcand will have six classrooms, dormitory space capable of housing 89 overnight students and a cafeteria that will feed 75 trainees per seating.
DPS has requested funding to add a tactical firearms range that when built will provide both long and short distance outdoor ranges and an indoor facility that can use the latest in video simulation technology.
“DPS law enforcement agencies such as the Highway Patrol, State Capitol Police, as well other agencies such as the SBI, ALE and others have limited options for firearms training and often get on backlog lists at existing firing ranges for annual certification,” Perry said. “This has long been a challenge.”
The vision for an academy began around 2008 when the leadership at the Office of Staff Development and Training, under the then Department of Correction, saw the need for the department’s use instead of paying other entities for lodging or being put on a backlog for use of facilities and delaying training for staff. Law enforcement agencies within DPS will also use Samarcand to conduct in-service and advanced training programs. Other local, state and federal agencies may conduct training at the facility on occasion. The FBI has already done so.
Prison inmates were a major source of the manpower used to make renovations, from roofing to wiring, painting and bricklaying.
The basketball hoops at Samarcand Training Academy’s gymnasium were removed and most of the gym floor is covered with training mats. A replica of an inmate cell was built for correctional officer training in such procedures as cell extraction.
A swimming pool sits empty, too expensive to fix, and several dilapidated buildings will either be torn down or renovated as part of Governor McCrory’s NC Connect bond.
“We are surrounded by 100 years of history here at Samarcand,” Perry said. “On this site in 1914, Headmaster Charles Henderson opened the Marienfield Open-Air School for boys. Three years later, the state purchased this property, and in 1918 opened the State Home and Industrial School for Girls and Women. The Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention operated the Samarkand Youth Development Center, until it closed in 2011 due to budget cuts and a declining juvenile population.
“Now we are writing the next chapter for this historic place – while continuing the long tradition of training and education on this site. This is an investment in the future of public safety in our state. The skills and lessons learned here by our employees will help protect North Carolinians through our coming generations.”