By Missy Wilkinson
The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate
NEW ORLEANS — Deep within an unassuming brick warehouse tucked behind a Walmart parking lot on Tchoupitoulas Street, the soft pops of training ammunition and flash-bangs will soon ring out.
Next month, the New Orleans Police Department is expected to complete construction on a new “shoot house” inside its Special Operations Division, located in a former cotton storage facility at 1899 Tchoupitoulas St.
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“This is unprecedented for NOPD. Unprecedented. We never had anything like this,” Capt. Preston Bax of NOPD’s Special Operations Division said Wednesday as he led members of NOPD’s Citizens Police Academy on a tour. “So we’re really excited about it.”
NOPD has previously trained recruits and SWAT officers at St. Tammany Parish’s “shoot house” or in a smaller version formerly housed at the Special Operations Division headquarters.
The new, 4,000-square-foot house will be much more tricked-out, with a climbing station, rappel station, furnished upstairs, a two-car garage, cameras, a catwalk for trainers to observe officers and a downstairs “blackout room.”
“That’s going to simulate night vision, nighttime entries and things like that,” Bax said. “Because sometimes we go into structures where they don’t have electricity. Or we’ll shut the electricity down during SWAT rolls, because we want the cover of night.”
Funding for the facility, the cost of which NOPD did not have available, came from private donors. Local, state and federal partners will train there, too, according to NOPD public information officer Aaron Looney.
The goal is to prepare officers for inherently unpredictable situations, including executing arrest warrants for violent offenders, negotiating hostage situations or clearing barricaded subjects, according to officials.
“All this stuff is a craft. It’s a skill. You’ve got to keep doing it,” Bax said.
Before executing any high-risk warrant, officers drive by the location to gather video and photos of the house. Back at the shoot house, officers will be able to mimic the layout of the residence by reconfiguring modular walls and blocking doors and windows.
“We can configure this house to the exact replica of the house that we’re about to hit,” Bax said.
Officers can also use it to review what went right or wrong afterward.
“A lot of times, we hit the same houses. So when we hit that house again, everybody’s on the same page,” said Officer Devon Joseph Sr ., who has spent 21 of his 25 years with the NOPD assigned to its Special Operations Division. “Everything somebody did in the room, we’re going to go over it. That’s part of being the best.”
Bax said the shoot house environment is designed to put officers under stress so they can build confidence in their skills. Excessive use of force, including shootings, often occurs when officers are afraid and resort to poor tactics, he said.
“So at this house right here, we’re going to make sure you’re up to date on your skills, you’re going to rely on your training,” Bax said.
“Any kind of high-stress situation, it’s going to be covered here. Countless, countless times, and they’re going to know how to handle it without any fear.”
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