The $2 million dollar project includes new building, exercise course, and VirTra police officer simulator
Yavapai Community College is putting the finishing touches on the new Northern Arizona Regional Training Academy (NARTA) facilities on the Prescott Campus. Recall that the Wills’ administration formally announced in March 2018 it had decided to move NARTA from the Prescott Valley Center, where it had been located since 1996, to the Prescott Campus. Per dollar figures given the Governing Board, the College budgeted spending $1,528,000 in 2018-19 and an additional $509,000 in 2019-20 to cover the costs of the move.
The cost includes construction of a 2,500 square foot training facility and outdoor exercise equipment to prepare a NARTA student to finish a required physical aptitude test. The Community College has also installed new sophisticated training .equipment such as the VirTra police officer’s simulator. The VirTra uses a multi-screen projector system to project real life actual scenarios in which officers must make split second decisions about use of deadly force.
Taxpayers picked up the $2 million-dollar price tag (no grant money) for the move. NARTA runs for 20 weeks twice a year and graduates about 30 students after each 20 week training program is completed.
Critics of the move point out that NARTA’s former location on the Prescott Valley Campus was described as a “state-of-the-art training facility.” However, the Master Plan justified the move as minimizing travel for faculty and students and locating a program on a campus with housing that the program requires. The Prescott Valley Chief of Police, Bryan Jarrell and the Prescott Chief of Police, Debora Black, both spoke to the Board at the March 2018 meeting and urged the Governing Board to approve the move.
NARTA acts as a regional training center serving city, county, tribal, and state law enforcement agencies throughout the state of Arizona. Recruits must be sponsored by an agency before entering the academy. Classes such as Drivers and Firearms Training and Stop and Approach are held at off-campus locations.
Community College NARTA VirTra simulator
VirTra simulator illustration from manufacturer.