Houston Police Open New Training Center Hours Before Officers Wounded in Narcotics Operation
Mayor Sylvester Turner, Tilman Fertitta and Police Chief Art Acevedo are shown along with Paige and Patrick Fertitta and HPD officers at the groundbreaking ceremony Monday for the Tilman Fertitta Family Tactical Training Center. (Photo by Dave Rossman)
HOUSTON – (By Dale King, Realty News Report) – City officials broke ground on a new police tactical training center just hours before a narcotics operation in which four Houston officers were shot Monday afternoon.
The officers remained hospitalized Tuesday at Memorial Hermann, with two in critical condition. Two suspects were killed after gunfire was exchanged with police at a home in the Pecan Park neighborhood in southeast Houston.
Earlier that day, officials gathered to begin construction of the tactical training center at 17000 Aldine Westfield Road near Bush Airport.
Designed to expand reality-based, scenario-driven instruction, the center will use advanced technology and simulated environments to help officers prepare for homeland security threats and other high-risk incidents. The facility will include a mock village with various building types so officers can train for emergencies such as active shooter, hostage or terror situations.
The Houston Police Foundation commissioned the design and construction of the 44,000-square-foot facility, which will be named the Tilman Fertitta Family Tactical Training Center in honor of the Houston billionaire who donated $2.5 million toward the $10 million project.
Tilman Fertitta, longtime chairman of the Houston Police Foundation board, is CEO and sole owner of Houston-based Landry’s Restaurant Group, owner of the NBA’s Houston Rockets, and owner of the Golden Nugget casino and hotel properties. He also hosts the CNBC reality show “Billion Dollar Buyer.”
Fertitta and his family joined Mayor Sylvester Turner, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo and dozens of officers at the north-side construction site adjacent to the Houston Police Academy campus. Ziegler Cooper Architects of Houston designed the two-story building.
When construction is complete in December 2019, the Tilman Fertitta Family Tactical Training Center will offer space and technology to train officers for modern public-safety challenges. The facility is intended to prepare personnel for scenarios across diverse settings—nightclubs, hotels, banks, places of worship, workplaces and schools.
“Active shooter incidents play out in devastating ways across our nation,” said Chief Acevedo. “Once rare, tactical training centers like this are now essential for police readiness. We operate in a changed world, and joint training among multiple agencies ensures coordinated responses to active shooter situations.”
Mayor Turner described the facility: “Constructed to simulate an entire village under one roof, the hangar-like interior is divided into four quadrants. Three quadrants contain realistic replicas of building types arranged along an urban streetscape with intersections that allow dynamic training using tactical vehicles.”
The fourth quadrant will house traditional classrooms, a simulation system for virtual skills development, and administrative offices.
“Although our firm is well known for urban architecture, we are equally committed to community welfare and have substantial experience with public safety projects,” said Steve Lucchesi, architect in charge at Ziegler Cooper.
The Houston Police Foundation says the new training center is a vital step toward greater public safety for residents of the nation’s fourth-largest city.
Mayor Turner noted that Houston is short roughly 600 police officers compared with its usual staffing levels. “We are twice the size of Chicago, and that city has more police officers than we have,” he said.
Chief Acevedo responded to the staffing disparity: “What HPD may lack in numbers, it makes up in heart.” He added that the new training center will give officers “training that is truly second to none.”
The center will enable local officers to practice responses to emergency situations in life-like mock-ups of the types of buildings and environments they encounter across urban and suburban Houston.
Incorporating modern technology, the mock village will include an overhead catwalk for direct monitoring and control of training, along with digital video and audio systems. Training sessions can be recorded for playback, escalated or de-escalated in real time, and enhanced with sound effects and realistic lighting for day or night scenarios.
Mayor Turner said the Fertitta Family Tactical Training Center will be only the fourth facility of its kind in the United States, joining centers in Washington, D.C., Fort Worth and the FBI’s Hogan’s Alley in Quantico, Virginia.
