City Of Enid Turning Skate Park Into Police Training Facility

The Enid Police Department needs more recruits, and now the department has an ace in the hole. It's building a state-of-the-art training center.

Once it’s done, the $1 million training facility will be one of few in Oklahoma equipped with a simulation room and state of the art technology.

“We gave money to have a new skate park here in Enid and have that one moved so we could utilize that city land for the training facility,” said Captain Bryan Skaggs with the Enid Police Department.

The training facility is located across the street from the police department.

“This training facility is a 4,000 square feet facility. It will have a 50-seat classroom and on the west end of the building will be a state-of-the-art simulation system called VirTra,” he said.

The room will have a Taser simulator and other tools for officers to do live-scenario de-escalation training.

“They will be totally immersed so we can put officers in there to do their initial training,” said Skaggs.

He said this will help officers with their muscle memory in the field.

“The new VirTra system will be a state-of-the-art system and be one of the only ones in Oklahoma,” said Skaggs.

Enid residents will also be able to use the facility.

“We are going to reach out to citizens where they can come in to train, security teams from churches, businesses,” he said.

The Enid Police Department is currently 18 officers short and has six officers in training.

Skaggs said this building will help with recruitment efforts.

“There are a lot of officers looking for a community our size and I think with us having the equipment that we have and the very advanced technology that is definitely a recruiting tool,” he said.

The training center is set to be completed in November.