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Hillsborough Deputies Get New Space To Train

Mike Wells / Tampa Tribune

Hillsborough County Deputy Stuart O’Shannon is lead fitness instructor at the sheriff’s new training facility on Falkenburg Road. O’Shannon said he teaches “real world lifting” to deputies. The 24-hour gym is just one part of a 27,000-square-foot renovation project that houses the Training Division’s new classrooms, interview and disaster simulation rooms and conference space.

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By MIKE WELLS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 23, 2007

BRANDON - An idea that formed two years ago as a simple sketch has reached 27,000 square feet of reality for the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office's Training Division.

The agency unveiled its new facility today at 1409 N. Falkenburg Road.

Last year, county commissioners approved buying the 59,000-square-foot Pinebrooke Business Park to be split and developed as new offices for the Training Division and Child Protective Investigations Division, which began operating from there in January.

The sheriff's office is leasing the building back from the county with money collected from the Department of Children & Families and the state's criminal justice training trust fund.

Until now, the sheriff's training facilities were confined to about 3,000 square feet of classroom space in portable buildings and other structures across the county. The sheriff's Walter C. Heinrich Practical Training Range in rural Lithia has just one small permanent structure with offices for some of the training instructors and limited classroom space.

Maj. Jim Previtera oversees the 18-member training division and said he's excited by what the expansion means for future training possibilities.

"We lacked the facility and we lacked the technology," Previtera said. "We have that now."

The building's gleaming flat-screen televisions, ergonomic chairs and newly painted walls look impressive and costly, but Previtera said his staff worked diligently to come in under the renovation project's initial estimates of more than $2.5 million.

"We built it out through a general contractor and using the sheriff's office's facilities people, we reduced it to about $2 million," he said. "It's exciting to see our facilities staff build something like this."

Some inmate labor was used for construction cleanup jobs and outdoor landscaping that ordinarily could be done by private companies, he said.

The facility includes an interview lab that can be converted to simulate a variety of scenes, a mock jail cell, a backup 911 and radio dispatch center, and a computer simulation room for disaster training.

Most of the classrooms have ceiling-mounted cameras so that classes can be recorded for training purposes.

The facility also includes a 24-hour gym for deputies and civilian staff, complete with rows of free weights, 24 weight-lifting and cardio machines, locker rooms and showers. Deputy Stuart O'Shannon is the lead fitness instructor.

"The sheriff is trying to be proactive as far as health care is concerned," O'Shannon said. "This has an effect on the bottom line. We're a self-insured agency and it's a cost-saving effort."

Previtera seemed most proud of the building's simplest space. With thick, green wrestling mats on the floors and padded walls, the defensive tactics room offers instructors ample space to teach deputies self-defense moves.

Until now, the agency used gymnasiums operated by Tampa police and Hillsborough Community College, Previtera said.

The hands-on training that deputies will receive in this room probably has the most potential to save lives, he said.

Outside law enforcement agencies have scheduled classes and workshops of their own at the facility, including the Southern Police Institute from the University of Louisville.

The Training Division expects to begin operating out of the building on Nov. 13 and to hold the next law enforcement and detention deputy graduation there on Nov. 30.

Reporter Mike Wells can be reached at (813) 259-7839 or mwells@tampatrib.com.

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