Tampa Police Department $5.4 Million Range
BY Herschel Smith
10 years ago
WTSP:
Tampa Police broke ground Wednesday on a new $5.4 million gun training range. TPD says it will keep us all safer. But will it be worth that big price tag?
The new firearms training facility is set to be built inside a City of Tampa complex near Port Tampa Bay. There’s little doubt it will be state-of-the-art.
Plans show the new Tampa Police Department shooting range will have a target area with 40 shooting lanes, a classroom, and something called a “shoot house.”
What’s that? It’s a building with movable walls that trainers can use to recreate complex, real-life scenarios.
TPD’s also planning to install a system that automatically gathers and recycles the lead bullets that are fired to keep down the environmental impact.
Money seized from criminals and drug dealers will pay the $5.4 million cost, not taxpayers. Still, that’s a lot of money that could certainly be spent on other law enforcement projects.
Nice range, huh? Would you like to be able to use it? Me too. Could the public use that $5.4 million to defray the costs of city operation? You bet.
It’s a good deal, no? Perpetrate a way on drugs with militarized police, confiscate the largesse, and use the largesse to further the war and militarization of the police, thus feeding the monster. But only if no one holds you accountable and you are in power over others.
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On October 23, 2014 at 6:00 am, McThag said:
We unwashed taxpayers are already forbidden to use the present range, so I don’t expect that we’ll be allowed to voluntarily fund the new one.
On October 23, 2014 at 10:09 am, Paul b said:
I got to use the police range in my town by taking a Citizens Police Academy. Course I can’t use it any other time and that time it was very restricted, but it was a nice range.
Our PD is probably the best trained on in the Metro. Not sure what that buys, but that is where we spent our money.
On October 23, 2014 at 1:29 pm, Blake said:
“Money seized from criminals and drug dealers will pay the $5.4 million cost….”
I’ll give 10 to 1 odds that some, if not a lot of the money, will be raised via civil forfeiture laws. Nothing like seizing and spending money before the accused even makes it to trial. And if a couple of citizens are deemed to be dishonest and lose some cash because “no honest person carries that much cash” well, eggs and omelettes, baby.
On October 24, 2014 at 8:54 am, FedUpWithWelfareStates said:
“Money seized from criminals and drug dealers will pay the $5.4 million cost, not taxpayers.” Sounds good to me & the majority of U.S. taxpayers I’m sure…
On October 24, 2014 at 1:07 pm, Herschel Smith said:
And of course a much better option would be to give it back to the community by opening a public range.