'Bullet catcher' to be built at police firing range to relieve officers of sentry duty
A bullet catcher is to be built at a police firing range to stop anyone being hit by any stray rounds.
It will mean officers will no longer have to waste 1,000 hours a year patrolling the perimeter of the training centre making sure no one wanders into harm’s way.
The Staffordshire Police range in Cold Meece, Stone, is more than half-a-mile away from the nearest house and no-one has ever been hurt there. But Baden Hall, a former military complex, falls below national standards and now a 60ft-wide canopy to safeguard against ricochets will have to be built at a cost of £140,000. Police chiefs say it will save on time being wasted standing sentry at the range meaning officers can spend more time on firearms training.
The force has had to carry out the contingency measure after the College of Policing (CoP) deemed the training ground was now falling short of national standards.The proposal is for a 20ft-deep and 60ft-wide canopy.
Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Matthew Ellis has signed off a £145,252.16 investment to build the structure.
Mr Ellis said: “When I arrived the training of police marksman and armed response was located in the West Midlands which did not seem sensible because they were spending more time travelling than training. I moved them back here in 2013 and now part of the requirements is that we must have a canopy. There has never been a ricochet or a safety issue.”
In a report to the PCC, estates manager Graham Read said: “The new bullet catching canopy structure is need to ensure that the existing firing range reaches national accreditation standards. This is because the existing arrangements at the range are not satisfactory, the absence of a canopy structure to catch dispersed/ricocheted bullets/rounds may carry over from the range area and into neighbouring/land area.
“This means that officers have to be deployed on sentry watch duties to ensure that other users of the land adjacent to the range do not enter areas of risk/harm.
“These adjustments have monetary and time impacts that significantly limit training time at the range.” Mr Read added: “The implications of this are significant in that approximately 30 per cent of any training contingent is required to carry out the sentry function meaning thereby reducing overall time on the range for authorised firearms officers which equates to almost a thousand hours of training time each year not being effectively used for firearms training.”
The site has was formerly owned by the Ministry of Defence but has been used by Staffordshire Police for the last four years.
