Antioch City Council Approves Opening Shooting Range to Outside Police Agencies

On Tuesday, the Antioch City Council unanimously voted to make its firearms range available to other law enforcement agencies after they approved an hourly range use fee.

The council agreed with the $100 an hour fee proposed by the Antioch Police Department which is aimed to cover staff time and maintenance associated costs. This comes after the police department recently completed its firearms range moderation upgrade last year and now were getting requests from other agencies to use the facility—which is available year-round.

According to Antioch Police Lieutenant Trevor Schnitzius, the range is fully automated and has the ability to generate custom training scenarios which are not available at other facilities.

“With limited facilities throughout the County and in East County we have received several requests from law enforcement agencies for official use of our facilities,” explained Schnitzius. “We offer a unique training opportunity that many other agencies don’t have access to our due to demand and scheduling conflicts are unavailable to obtain.”

Schnitzius said the range fee would include the operator at the facility at all times—sworn officers only would be allowed to use the facility.

Councilwoman Monica Wilson asked if the fee was comparable to other ranges which Schnitzius stated they would be and that the closest range outside of the County was the Art Koch Range and Training Facility, which Fairfield police operates at a cost of $75 per hour (including an operator).

The council approved the fee in a 5-0 vote and the fee will be annually reviewed.