24-05-2025
KLETC breaks ground for two facilities, a move to modernize how officers are trained
YODER, Kan. (KSNW) — The Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center is breaking ground on new facilities to provide a better educational and training experience for law enforcement officers in training. KSN looks into the first steps for the project.
The groundbreaking ceremony kicked off the construction of the Professional Development and Administration building and a housing facility in Yoder.
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Funded by the State of Kansas, around $20 million will be spent on building these. It's a move to essentially modernize the way law enforcement officers are trained, by providing them hands-on and real-world experience. The ultimate goal is not to have instructors impeded by a lack of facilities.
'We need an indoor firearms range. We need facilities that mimic the kinds of circumstances that officers are going to find on the job. So, we need to be able to have houses that we can turn into crime scene houses. We need houses that we can do forensic analysis and forensic evidence collection. So all of those things, we don't have them,' said Darin Beck, Vice Provost of KLETC and Director of police training for the State of Kansas.
'Educating all of these law enforcement officers, there's a lot that goes into that. And they just really did not have enough space to be able to do what they wanted to do. So, this really gives them the ability to continue their mission and to be able to get more and more folks through this system,' said State Rep. Dan Hawkins, Speaker of the House, Wichita.
'More instruction, more creative instruction, more leadership development for our public safety and law enforcement officials across the state. And that means better service in every community that we represent,' said Barbara Bichelmeyer, Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor, University of Kansas.
They said that the training facilities will especially help smaller agencies in rural areas, saying these buildings will allow them to extend training all throughout the state.
They also said cities like Wichita already have their own training facilities. However, that's not the standard for many other parts of Kansas. This is their way of providing equal training for all officers.
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