Cochise University debuted a training driving truck on Monday to mark the completion of the newest infrastructure addition to the Southeast Arizona Law Enforcement Training Academy. Construction of the approximately five-acre concrete track cost the university $4.85 million.

The track provides cadets with a safe place to practice evasive driving agility and demonstrate control of high speed maneuvers. Located behind Sierra Vista Fire and Medical Services Station 3 off Giulio Cesare Avenue.

“We choose the outside of the corner so that we can see all the way out of the corner. In contrast, race car drivers choose the inside and try to cut. Around the corner,” said Nathan Drake, a detective with the Sierra Vista Police Department and an instructor at the Southeast Arizona Law Enforcement Training Academy. “This lane means the roadway. slow it down.”

Phases 2 and 3 of the Southeast Arizona Law Enforcement Training Academy will include construction of an indoor firing range and cadet dormitories. Both are scheduled to be completed by 2025. Cochise University president Dr. JD Rottweiler said Monday that the university will break ground on these projects in late September this year.

The indoor shooting range will be constructed in what is now Parking Lot B, just across the ring road from the north entrance of the Sierra Vista campus. The dormitory will be constructed on the northeast side of the campus, just south of the University of Arizona School of Applied Science and Technology.

Funding for this track, like the other phases of the Academy’s expansion, comes from multiple sources. Public funding received by the university comes from the state’s Local Aid Allocation and Proposition 207. Dr. Wendy Davis, vice president for administration at Cochise University, said in January that private donations also help fund the dormitories.

The Southeast Arizona Law Enforcement Training Academy was launched in 2019 as a partnership between the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office and the Sierra Vista Police Department, according to Dr. JD Rottweiler, president of Cochise University.

“Since then, more than 100 law enforcement professionals have been trained and are working in our communities,” Rottweiler said Monday night. “Together, we are at the cutting edge of training the next generation of first responders.”