By BOB SHRALUKA
WZBD.com
Decatur Police Chief Kevin Gerber has issued an apology to residents of the city and surrounding area for a nighttime session at the department’s shooting range on the east end of the city.
The training session apparently stirred considerable concern expressed by numerous people on social media.
The firing range is located on the far end of E. Monroe St., near the city’s new water plant.
In a Facebook post around noon Friday, Gerber said: “We would like to apologize to the citizens of Decatur for any concern or annoyance that may have been caused by last night’s training at the department firing range located east of the city. We should have done better at communicating to the public this training was going to happen, but we failed to do so.”
According to the chief, the training involved two groups of approximately 10 officers in each. One group was in action from 8 to 10 p.m., and the other from 10 p.m. to midnight.
“The reason for the late hour training was to take advantage of the night sky absent of the moon,” Gerber said in the statement. “This created the darkest natural situation possible for us to train in.
“Unfortunately, bad things happen in our world, and those bad things don’t always happen during daytime hours or in well lit areas. This training offers us the chance to make sure your police officers are properly trained even when faced with the challenges of near total darkness.
“The proper and tactical way to use flashlights along with their firearm. As well as the challenges presented when the red and blue emergency lights are turned on during an incident while at night or in darkness.
“We want to properly train officers to be the best as possible to insure our community is well protected at all hours. These are situations we cannot possibly train for during the day. Moving forward we will do a better job at communicating to the public when this training will be held to help ease concerns.”
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