Cranston Police armed with new tools and options towards a quieter firearm training range

Some residents of Cranston who live closest to the Cranston Police Academy have been “on fire” about the sound of gunfire coming from the shooting range at Training Complex. They say it is much more than annoying recently, and is impacting their quality of life, health, sense of well-being, and quite possibly standing in the way of their being able to sell their homes.

While we know of no complaints from the schools in close proximity to the range, individuals have taken on the range as a mission, enlisting the media from local to national, even doing sound studies with students at Brown University, which the police and WPRI-TV12 attempted and failed to replicate. But videos and audio recordings document well the sounds of firearm training, and how disruptive they can be. People working from home during COVID and now hybrid work schedules has made the sound more noticeable to individuals who live close by.

After at least 3 years of intensive work to find a solution, with resident presentations to the Cranston City Council and appeals to the Mayor’s office, Senator Reed’s office, and the RI Legislature, permanent solutions have not yet been realized – but progress has been made – and paths forward identified.

It’s clear that compromise has not been an operative word in the community, but keeping the community safe as the world becomes more challenging for law enforcement by the day is the overriding priority, with training that meets standards for new weapons and methods, as solutions are identified. The range will not cease to exist, but steps forward are clearly in place.

Here is our update to a story we have covered for 3 years.

Legislation

A perfect solution might have come from Sen. Jack Reed when he offered to find federal funds to completely enclose and soundproof the training range. But that effort failed in Washington.

Locally, while legislation that would ban shooting ranges within a mile of a school or child care center was defeated several times over several years because in such a small state that could impact the existence of most public – and private – shooting ranges in the state, one piece of legislation did finally pass which could potentially impact the issue of the sound of gunfire. The section of the legislation would provide for silencers, or suppressors, to be used in police training – previously unable to be used.

Law enforcement training with silencers on their weapons will always be at the discretion of the Academy leadership, or Colonel. The issue of training in real-life situations may be compromised by a silenced sound, and that would be a consideration. Another would be the cost of the silencers – averaging at a professional level in the $1,000 or more range. With teams training together, providing for all members working is a budgetary issue. Notably, the bill passed (2024 — H 7570 Substitute A) has no financial note to help the budgets of the police departments to use it.

Cranston’s Police Academy Training Complex

In the 2023 Year-End report of the Cranston Police Department, the department acknowledged the issue with the noise of the training range. In this report, they stated:

“Complex Improvement & Expansion. The Cranston Police Training Complex is the most versatile police training facility in Rhode Island that requires continual maintenance. Many small improvements were made throughout 2023 including range clean up, target repair, enhanced berm
structure, water drainage, and added security to the buildings and signage to the property.

Due to consistent noise complaints from surrounding residents, the Cranston Police Department reduced the amount of weapon firing by its officers while keeping in compliance with state statutes; reduced the range use by outside agencies to three small agencies; and developed multiple options for future range enclosure to be considered by city officials.

Throughout the year, the Training staff remained conscience of the nearby neighborhoods and worked with the local schools to limit impacts on any of their outdoor extracurricular activities. Despite reports from external sources, we continued to have great relationships with the neighbors and the school district.”

Throughout the year, the Training Facility hosted or assisted the following agencies to conduct their firearms training programs:
East Providence Police Department
Johnston Police Department
Smithfield Police Department

The RI Municipal Police Training Academy no longer uses the Cranston facility for firearms training.

To read the entire 2023 report, go HERE.

An election issue – Moving the range

Cranston Mayor Ken Hopkins & Republican primary challenger, Barbara Ann Fenton-Fung were asked about the shooting range issue for some in the city at the August debate held by the Cranston Herald at the Cranston Library. Here is that segment (sound quality is poor).

Fenton-Fung refers to the silencer/suppressor legislation and Mayor Hopkins notes his in-the-works plan to relocate the range completely and enclosing it to eliminate the noise problem in total.

He mentions conversations with a land owner, and doing research at other community ranges who have built enclosed, sound-suppressed ranges.

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Enclosing the range

Application had been made to the state (not funded) to use $1.6 million in ARPA funds to enclose the range (Noise Mitigation/Pollution Control for Police Training Academy Shooting Range which is utilized by the RI Municipal Police Training Academy and other Law Enforcement Agencies). That project was described in the application this way: “extend portion of the current range from twenty-five (25) yards to fifty (50) yards then enclose the entire structure with soundproofing material. By doing so, ninety (90) percent of the patrol rifle training/qualification and one hundred (100) percent of the handgun training/qualifications would be inside the structure. This would reduce the amount of noise pollution experienced by students and residents of the area and maintain the required law enforcement standards”. This ARPA application to the RI Legislature was not funded.

There is progress. Both for a long term and short term solution. But it will take time. Reducing use by other departments, the potential to use silencers if appropriate in training, and if funding is identified, doing research into how other communities handle their training facilities, investigating closing in and sound-proofing the existing facility, and finally, to move the facility and not put a bandaid on the problem, but finding a permanent – and fundable – solution.

Range Use Schedule

The department posts the approximate times the range will be used on the city of Cranston website. For September: “The Cranston Police range may be in intermittent use. Rife training for new officers will occur during the first week of September. Pistol Qualifications will occur, Monday through Friday, during the three remaining weeks of September.”  

We will continue to cover this story as it develops.

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