The Overland Park Police Department is one step closer to having a true, on-campus training center for its officers.
For years, the department has utilized a temporary space, originally intended as a garage, for physical fitness training. Additional training, such as mandatory shooting practice, is completed elsewhere, either at another police department facility in the area or at private facilities.
But on Monday, city leaders, department officials and retired members of Overland Park Police marked the formal start of construction on a dedicated, more sustainable training facility on the W. Jack Sanders Justice Center campus with a groundbreaking ceremony.
“Today, we are making a commitment to the future of a safer Overland Park,” said Police Chief Doreen Jokerst. “As our city grows and the world becomes more complex, good enough is no longer the standard we aim for. This training center represents our commitment to the public that we will not just meet expectations; we will lead the way in 21st-century policing.”
The new facility will span about 35,000 square feet and include a firing range as well as regular training rooms. Early cost projections estimated a new training center would cost around $17 million, but the final project price tag will come to roughly $24 million.
Even though police officers will ostensibly benefit most directly, Mayor Curt Skoog said he sees the whole project as “an investment in our residents.”
“The city is only as strong as the safety and the security its people feel,” he said. “By providing our officers with world-class space to train in de-escalation, crisis intervention and modern safety tactics, we ensure that every interaction between our department and our community is rooted in professionalism and trust.”
A new police training center has been in the works for a while
A 2019 study of the Sanders campus and its long-term space needs called for six phases of work to modernize the complex, including the municipal court side of it. It suggested, among other things, that additional space would be needed for the police department to house things like a firing range, classroom space, an armory and physical fitness areas in the near future.
In 2022, the city upgraded the Sanders building and added a new vehicle storage building, as phase one. Additionally, the Myron Scafe building near Antioch Road and Santa Fe Drive, which still houses some police department offices, was remodeled at that time.
After that work was completed, City Manager Lori Curtis Luther was skeptical of more construction at Sanders, particularly when it came to the estimated price tag of a training center, and “put a pause” on discussion about it.
Later, convinced that it was increasingly becoming a necessity, she decided to add the training center project back into the capital improvement plan list, setting in motion a months-long design process.
Now, this new training building that’s officially under construction as of this week will effectively be phase two of the Sanders improvement and expansion plan prescribed in the 2019 plan.
On Monday, Curtis Luther said she sees the project as “the physical embodiment of that commitment” to ensure safe and healthy neighborhoods throughout the city.
“It is where we will cultivate the expertise needed to ensure that as our city grows, our safety services grow with it, focusing not just on tactical excellence, but on mental health integration and community compassion,” she said.
The city hasn’t yet provided specifics on when subsequent phases of the Sanders improvement and expansion plan may be enacted, if they will be enacted at all. Currently, Overland Park’s long-term capital improvement list includes no forthcoming major construction projects for the police department or municipal court in the near future.
First city building constructed under sustainability standards
The new police training center at Sanders will also mark another milestone: Overland Park’s first LEED Silver-certified building.
That’s a green building standard set by the U.S. Green Building Council, which considers things like sustainability of building materials, biodiversity, landscaping, water quality preservation and transportation access, among other variables.
In 2024, the Overland Park City Council voted unanimously to begin building to that standard or an equivalent certification when feasible as part of its new green building codes, a step toward increasing the sustainability of new and renovated city facilities.
Since this will be the first major city facility to begin construction after the city approved the new codes, it will be the first structure held to that standard.
Curtis Luther, during her remarks on Monday, underlined how important a step she felt this project marks in striving toward that goal, emphasizing the planned sustainability of it.
“Importantly, a better environment leads to better performance,” she said. “This certification means that we are providing our officers and staff with a healthier workspace.”
Looking ahead:
- Major construction work on the new police training center is expected to last through the rest of the year and into 2027.
- The department is expected to start using the new space by the end of next year, though some additional work on that building and on the main Sanders building could last into 2028.
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