City police are planning to expand their training space at Lambton Mall by moving into the north end of the old Tepperman's store.
The Sarnia Police Services Board approved changes to the current five-year lease at its meeting Thursday morning.
Chief Instructor Constable Shawn Osborne said the extra space, amounting to about 8,500 square feet, will allow for a more robust internal training program.
Sarnia Police Chief Instructor Constable Shawn Osborne.
"We needed a location where we could be out of public view," said Osborne. "Part of that is for the safety of the general public, because we use a training called simunition, using a marking cartridge outside of a pistol. We do that for our lethal force training."
Osborne said he's really excited about being able to design the space to fit their specific needs.
"This truly goes to making our officers safer, improving their professionalism, being able to challenge them on de-escalation training, so that when they go out into the general public interacting with our community these are consummate professionals that are out there. You can't do that, you can't make that happen unless you have a world class training area to be able to do that," he said.
Constable Osborne says the mall owner, Cushman Wakefield, is covering most of the capital cost of the move.
Osborne said he expects the police service will save about $25,000 by having officers train in the city rather than having to travel elsewhere.
Osborne says there's also a revenue generating opportunity by offering the space to other law enforcement organizations to use, like customs and jail officers.
"They need a facility as well to be able to train their officers appropriately to be able to deal with some really dynamic stuff. So, it's not just for our guys," he said.
The cost of the lease nearly doubles to just under $5,000 a month and still requires city council approval.