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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-12-01 Daily Xml
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FIREARMS TRAINING

In reply to Mrs REDMOND (Heysen—Leader of the Opposition) (1 July 2009) (Estimates Committee A).

The Hon. M.J. WRIGHT (Lee—Minister for Police, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing): SAPOL has four firearms ranges. Two are located at the Police Academy and are commonly known as the Indoor Range and Outdoor Range respectively. The third is located at the Echunga Training Reserve with the fourth being a two lane capacity at the Netley Police Complex.

Firearms training provided by SAPOL occurs throughout the year and falls into three main categories of:

Recruit initial firearms training;

Incident Management and Operational Safety Training Course (IMOST); and

Specialist training undertaken by the STAR Group.

Initial training for recruits is conducted entirely at the Police Academy Indoor Range. IMOST is a refresher certification course required to be undertaken each year by sworn operational members to requalify in all facets of operational safety, incident management and tactical options, including use of firearms.

In July 2008, SAPOL also commenced a long term project to transition from the current operational revolver to a semi-automatic pistol. This has increased the demand on SAPOL facilities. It is expected that the transition program will be completed by November 2010.

The following private ranges are currently used by SAPOL:

Elizabeth LSA—Joe Gapper Firearms Range (Elizabeth East Pistol Club)

Holden Hill LSA—North East Security Shooting Club (NESSCI—Armaguard Range)

Sturt LSA—Noarlunga City Pistol Club (NCPC)

South Coast LSA—NCPC

All country LSA use local private firearms ranges.

Elizabeth LSA and Holden Hill LSA have had a long standing arrangement with both the NESSCI and Gapper firearm ranges. No fixed fee is charged by either club for use of their ranges. The use of these ranges creates efficiencies for those areas by reducing travel time in attending the ranges locally and allowing the members involved to respond operationally if required.

Sturt and South Coast LSA have traditionally used the Echunga Range for IMOST purposes. However in 2008, they negotiated use of the NCPC Range due to an increased demand upon Echunga for the semi-automatic transition. A fee of $1,500 was negotiated and paid by SAPOL for use of the NCPC for a 12 month period.

In early 2009, fresh negotiations commenced with NCPC for increased use of their range to also accommodate Sturt and South Coast LSA training for the semi-automatic pistol. The fee proposed by the NCPC was $5,000, with limitations on the days on which the range would be available for SAPOL use. The proposal was declined by SAPOL. Semi automatic transition training for these two LSAs will be undertaken at the Academy and will be accommodated by rearrangement of Academy commitments for a short period. Sturt and South Coast LSAs are negotiating with the NCPC to continue to undertake IMOST training only at those premises.

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