The Comprehensive Security Improvement Center (CEPIS) of the Local Police of Santa Lucía de Tirajana is an increasingly closer reality; work has just begun on facilities with more than 600 square meters in the current underground parking lot of the Local Police . The center will have a 226-meter firearms use room or shooting gallery. There will also be a virtual shooting room, a defense practice gym, training classrooms, locker rooms and material storage spaces.
With a budget of 600.000 euros, the support of 65% of the Gran Canaria Council has been achieved, the rest will be with municipal funds. The mayor of Santa Lucía de Tirajana, Francisco García, appreciates “the support of the island corporation for this academy that will be available to the local police forces of the 21 municipalities of Gran Canaria.” The first mayor adds that "The works have a completion period of five months so, if what is stated in the project is fulfilled, at the end of this year our Local Police will be able to count on pioneering facilities at the state level to improve their training, without having to depend as until now on the transfer of facilities by the Ministry of the Interior.”
The new shooting gallery is configured as the largest in the entire Canary Islands, with state-of-the-art machinery equipment to carry out different exercises with live ammunition. It will have two parabala areas, front and left side; anti-fragment curtain, instructor room with armored glass, public address system to give warnings, adjustable lighting system for the shooting area, security video surveillance cameras, shooter separation screens, computer system and software for managing different mobile targets draft, anti-rebound coating of walls and ceilings, among others.
The physical activity room will have almost 100 square meters, with sports machinery, and a tatami to practice police self-defense techniques, as well as to disarm people carrying knives or the use of extendable self-defense, as determined. the regulations approved by the Government of the Canary Islands in 2020. The center will have police training software based on projection of simulated images or real physical spaces, where police officers will be able to practice situations of violence, and will have to make decisions under stress. of these situations, in order to minimize the risks to citizens.
The Chief Commissioner of the Local Police of Santa Lucía de Tirajana, José Luis Herrera, recalls that “in accordance with regional regulations from 2020, police officers are obliged to carry out improvement exercises in police shooting, training in the use of extendable defense, spray self-defense, electronic control system, the so-called “Taser”, all under the supervision of duly qualified instructors at least twice a year. “For this reason,” adds Herrera, “this project covers a very important need for the proper use of firearms and defensive elements in situations that require it by the police.”
