New Public Safety Center opens in Prattville
A new public safety training facility has opened in Prattville that will offer many improvements for both the police and fire/rescue departments.
Construction was completed in October. Local and state authorities have already started using the space for training exercises and learning in the classroom.
The new space will now allow both police and fire/rescue to train together, so when they are in action in the field, they’ll be able to handle any situation they’re thrown into.
“By training together, we know each other’s strengths and weaknesses, so we can build upon those. We know the capabilities of each department, so having a facility like this where we can all come together under one roof and train, it just expands our resources over and over again,” Prattville Fire Chief Josh Bingham told Action 8 News.
The facility even features a room where police can run through real-life scenarios in a simulation to prepare officers for what they may see in the field.
“We have over 100 scenarios that we can put them through: Shoot, don’t shoot, tase, mace, you name it. We can run them through that,” Prattville Police Chief Mark Thompson said.
As they welcome the new facility, they took time to remember two men who served their fellow Alabamians.
“1-14-04, we lost an officer in the line of duty during a training exercise, Clint Walker. We couldn’t think of a better way to open this facility, but to open it on Clint’s anniversary,” Thompson said.
“Scott passed away in recruit school back in 2001. He had a very rare aggressive form of cancer, so a very very sad day for our department. If Scott had still been here, he would’ve probably had his 25 years in, but he wasn’t going to retire. He loved the fire department that much,” Bingham said, referring to Scott Aadson, who died of cancer.
