While I find the noise unpleasant, it does not ruin my experience of my neighborhood or the park. I am totally opposed to any plan that would move the firing range to a different neighborhood, which would almost certainly be a less affluent neighborhood than ours, and populated by people who are far more likely to have already been victims of police violence and who have suffered greater traumas. If you bought a house in this neighborhood, you bought a house in this neighborhood, with all its flaws and noise. You don't get to come in and push the parts of it that you don't like onto those who don't have the resources to fight it. Kimberly Latta, PhD Highland Park, Pittsburgh Ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of America by getting in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble.--John Lewis, 2020. Every year strips us of at least one vain expectation and teaches us to reckon some solid good in its stead. I never will believe that our youngest days are our happiest. *George Eliot* On Thu, Jun 3, 2021 at 9:02 AM Highland Park Community Council < hpccpgh@gmail.com> wrote:
Hello All,
I met with various members of the Department of Public Safety this week to discuss the firing range, including the officers responsible for scheduling at the range who are very tuned in to the impact on the neighborhood. All of the firing they do there is mandated and they work hard to minimize the amount of time they use the site.
They are committed to only regularly scheduling training on the range Monday - Thursday with occasional Fridays, and no holidays. They committed to starting no earlier than 8 am (and acknowledged that they had been starting earlier but said that problem had been addressed) and ending as soon as possible in the evening.
The training that causes what sounds like automatic weapons is when they have a class of new officers learning to use firearms on the range. New officers are required to have 120 hours of "qualifications training" and they can train only half the group at a time (NOTE - last year the impact was worse b/c social distancing required them to train only 1/4 of the class at time, meaning they had 480 hours of qualification training). That type of training is 95% complete for the calendar year and will be completely finished by the end of June.
Schedule for qualification training: June 3rd: 0800hrs June 8th: 0800hrs & 1600hrs June 9th: 0800hrs & 1200hrs June 10th: 0800hrs June 15th; 0800hrs June 16th: 0800hrs & 1700hrs June 23rd: 1700hrs Each training block lasts about 2-3 hours.
For other mandated training (SWAT team, munitions, rifles) they will let us know as it's scheduled, but there isn't much left this year. Sometimes they also have officers who need to use the range but who don't make it onto the schedule far in advance (such as when an officer returns from sick or military leave, or when an officer's weapon is replaced or repaired). Access to the range is restricted (it is kept locked and only a few training leaders have keys) and officers are never allowed to go up on their own to practice or shoot for leisure. We worked out a new system to improve the frequency with which the HPCC is provided the schedule to share with the community.
The good news is that city officials seem to be taking the noise problem seriously for the first time in 40 years. There are both short and long term plans in development to address the noise, including closing the site and building a new facility. The bad news is that any solution will take time as there are no easy or quick fixes, and in the meantime, the officers are required to be trained - and we want them to be trained. Fortunately the bulk of training is over for the calendar year and we're optimistic that the new dialogue we have with the Department of Public Safety will result in some improvements in the short-term. We know how disturbing the gunfire noise is to members of the community and park users and will continue to work with the city to address this issue.
-- *Highland Park Community Council*
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