City Seeking Shooting Range, Impound Lot
By Robin Vinci | Editor at August 18, 2023 | 2:30 pm | Print
There are two pressing concerns for the New Britain Police Department. First is the need for a practice shooting range and second is the need to relocate the impound lot.
“We have had initial meetings on both of these issues this week,” said Mayor Erin Stewart. “We will be working in the next several months to find solutions to both of these problems.”
Per State requirements all police officers have to go through very regular firearms training. It is important to their day to day job. There used to be a range at the basement of the old police station, but that was taken down.
“They don’t build indoor ranges in police departments any more, because you have to filter the air. If there is a lot of lead in the air there could be issues,” said Stewart. “The downtown police department does not have a range built in. We have been using a location in Plainville at Tilcon. It was just a matter of time until they needed it and that time came to an end 6 months ago. So we are a police department without a home for this.”
There are many factors to putting in a shooting range including noise issues and limited space in the City.
“We are not only police department in the state dealing with this issue. We’ve been trying to beg, barter and steal time at all other towns such as Hartford, Glastonbury and Meriden, but it gets to a point that scheduling becomes an issue as well as overtime. Officers drive over a half hour to get to a location.”
It would be more cost effective to have one in the City or close by.
“We met to talk about options, but options are far and few between,” Stewart said. “We have to acknowledge finding a permanent home is extremely important.”
The City is working with regional partners to find a regional agreement and also are identifying some pieces of property that private people own that are off the beaten path and may be an option.
The City needs space for 25 lanes and each lane is 5 feet.
“It is a decent amount of space but not out of the ordinary. The State police are looking for a new range as well. Maybe we can collaborate in the Central Connecticut state area,” Stewart added. “It will end up costing us, especially if we have to forge a partnership with an existing range.”
Similar concerns evolve around the impound lot. The present impound lot is located beneath the Harry Truman overpass underneath the bridge on Herald Square.
“The state is kicking us out, because they need to do bridge maintenance in the Spring. We were notified by the state that we have until the spring of 2017 to vacate that location,” said Stewart. “We have been at that location for over 35 years and it was never a problem until now. We applied to the state twice for relocation funds to find somewhere to move the lot because of the costs the city has to incur. But they denied us twice. We are kind of on our own to find a solution.”
Because the cars deal with evidence of criminal cases the lot has to be enclosed. There are about 50 cars and they can’t be put in a field because they will be damaged by the weather.
“We are looking at options. If we were to build our own building it could be quite costly. So we are looking at options of leasing space,” Stewart added. “We are getting together next week to put together a list of potential locations, preferably in our industrial park, that may be able to house the 50 or so cars at a low rent for us.”
Parking garages cannot be used because most cars are from crashes and don’t start up. The would need a flat bed and height requirements don’t allow for them in garages.
