KSHB 41 reporter Alyssa Jackson covers portions of Johnson County, including Overland Park, Prairie Village and Leawood. Share your story idea with Alyssa.
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The Overland Park City Council approved a resolution to build a $23.5 million police training facility on the campus of the W. Jack Sanders Justice Center at 12400 Foster St.
The building will be 30,000 square feet and will include offices, classrooms, physical training areas, computer simulations, and an indoor shooting range.
Officer John Lacy, the department's public information officer, said the facility will be useful for many years.
"A lot of times, people outsource their training," Lacy said. "Now, we have it in-house. Not too many police departments across America can say that."
The state requires 40 hours of officer training every year, according to Overland Park Police Chief Doreen Jokerst.
The police department usually works with private companies for officers to get practice time on a shooting range. Officers use a garage space on the police department campus for physical conditioning.
"I got hired on in the late 90s, Chief Jokerst said. "Training and policing in the late 90s and training in 2025 are vastly different. Ensuring we're keeping with those trends, the technology, the what needs to be done in policing, is extremely important."
The police department is trying to maintain a competitive edge in the region.
KSHB 41 recently highlighted their cadet program.
Chief Jokerst joined the department in October as its first female police chief.
She said last year they had 40 police officer vacancies.
They've reduced that this year to 21 vacancies.
Officer turnover is just below 8%, lower than the national average of 11%.
The department thinks a state-of-the-art training facility will only make them more competitive when its time to hire new officers..
"This is going to give us a little nudge of applicants wanting to come here," Lacy said.
While it will be an Overland Park facility, the chief hopes the training center will eventually create regional partnerships.
"Our purpose in policing is to protect the vulnerable from harm," she said. "I want to make sure our police officers and professional staff are provided the tools, resources, and equipment to make sure we are doing that."
Construction is expected to start in 2026.
The training facility is expected to be finished by late 2027.
