As construction wraps up on Boone County’s new law enforcement training center, the program is already welcoming its first class of recruits.
A main focus of that training, according to Boone County sheriff Dwayne Carey, will be experiential learning. The $20 million facility is meant to replicate real-world aspects of police work: among its amenities are a 100-yard firing range, two $100,000 driving simulators, a neighborhood of custom-built ballistic-proof homes, a drive-in warehouse in which to practice traffic stops and a wall-to-wall padded room for jiu jitsu practice.
Carey said law enforcement agencies in the region have been slow to return to these sorts situational training post-pandemic, which he said poses a problem to officers who rely on hands-on practice to know how to respond in an emergency.
“I think when COVID hit, a lot of people got out of the scenario-based stuff, the hands-on, because you couldn't have contact with anybody,” Carey said. “So I think a lot of agencies across the country are probably implementing the scenario stuff that we're doing, but we just weren't seeing it around here.”
The new center will provide continuing education not only to Boone County officers, but also to partner agencies across mid-Missouri. In addition, the facility will train recruits from MU Extension’s Law Enforcement Training Institute. LETI director Damon Reynolds said the training center will serve around 100 new students every year.
Presiding Boone County Commissioner Kip Kendrick played an integral role in seeing the training center to completion. During the 2023 legislative session, Kendrick and Carey pitched the regional training concept to Missouri lawmakers and secured $4 million in state funding for the project.
Prior to the construction of the training center, the sheriff’s office had used the former Boone County Fairgrounds for its scenario-based training. By bringing these hands-on opportunities under one roof, Kendrick said, Boone County will have a unique resource to offer its regional partners.
“As far as just the variety of things and the scope of what this training center can provide, it is pretty unique for the region, for the state of Missouri, and potentially even the Midwest region as well,” he said.
As of late December, the Boone County facility had formal agreements with 12 mid-Missouri agencies to provide training to their officers, according to documents shared by Kendrick.
As two police officers practiced jiu jitsu in the defense tactics room behind him, Carey said those techniques are an increasingly large part of the program’s training — his agency requires regular on-the-mat practice for officers — as a way of keeping law enforcement, bystanders and those under arrest safer than with more lethal methods.
“The reason why I wanted to go full-on is, the entire time [the instructor] is working on de-escalation, he's using his words, talking to the individual the whole time,” he said. “So yeah, it's basically a liability issue, making sure that the deputies, and the officers with our partner agencies are comfortable knowing the techniques, and then also just trying to keep people safe to where we don't escalate in our use of force.”
A 2025 Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences study of police training across America found that academies dedicate, on average, more than half of their time to police operations and weapons or defense tactics. Less than 10% of training hours are spent on community-oriented policing methods, such as conflict resolution, problem-solving and building partnerships with diversity.
In the two years following the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed a 4% decrease in the number of law enforcement workers across the country, as agencies reported officers resigning in higher numbers and decreasing enrollment in police academies.
Carey attributed some of those policing failures to inadequate training, and said he’s hopeful the kinds of scenario-based training offered at the facility will prepare officers to make better decisions on calls.
“I always say to give them something to draw from, from their training, that they can then use in the field,” he said.
To Kendrick, investing in these training resources is necessary to adapt to a law enforcement landscape altered by fast-changing technology, politics and narratives around policing.
“It's a quickly evolving environment,” he said. “And so keeping up on training, keeping up on best practices is critical to having an adequate public safety response, and keeping the public safe in general.”
The public can tour the new facility, at 2013 County Drive, Saturday morning.
