Community pours out to honor new Public Safety Campus

Gov. Kristi Noem: No other facility like it in the region

Hundreds of people dedicated the Sioux Falls Public Safety Campus Saturday, a 42-acre state-of-the-art complex that centralizes first responder training and centralizes 911 dispatch and emergency operations.

The most unique training campus in the region, the facility includes an indoor firing range, a driving course to teach law enforcement high-speed driving skills, a replica of Phillips Avenue to teach firefighting skills and an Emergency Operations Center equipped to monitor conditions around the city. The campus is in northeast Sioux Falls.

Metro 911, which the city recently took over, will be housed there in a technologically advanced dispatch center.

Besides bringing core public safety functions under one roof, the new facility replaces the old training center at the airport, which Mayor Paul TenHaken said opened when he was six months old.

“If you haven’t been out there, it’s tired – very tired,” he said.

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