Hogan's Alley (FBI)
Hogan's Alley is a tactical training facility of more than 10 acres (40,000 m2) operated by the FBI Training Academy. Hogan's Alley was opened in 1987, and was designed to provide a realistic urban setting for training agents of the FBI, DEA, and other local, state, federal and international law enforcement agents. It is also occasionally used as an urban combat training venue for lieutenants at the United States Marine Corps' The Basic School, which is located nearby. The term "Hogan's Alley" is also used generically to refer to any shooting range devoted to tactical training.
Hogan's Alley consists of a street with a bank, a post office, a hotel ("The Dogwood Inn"), a laundromat, a barber shop, a pool hall, homes, shops, and more, many of which are named after events in the FBI's past. The town is populated by actors who role play parts appropriate to the training that is in progress; most play innocent bystanders, but some play terrorists, bank robbers, drug dealers, or other criminal roles. One of the buildings really houses a classroom for training agents on site and another building houses a working FBI office used in some simulated scenarios.
Hogan's Alley is used to teach agents investigative techniques, firearms skills, and defensive tactics. Scenarios involve investigations of terrorist activities, planning and making arrests, processing evidence at crime scenes, conducting interviews and searches, using ballistic shields as protection, and clearing areas and buildings so they're safe to enter. Simulated munitions, which are essentially realistic paintball guns, are used in simulated gun fights with the criminal role players.
The FBI's Hogan's Alley has evolved out of established police and military training facilities dating back to the period between World War I and World War II. The first reference to a facility called "Hogan's Alley" was at the Special Police School, established by the National Rifle Association and the Army's National Board for the Promotion of Rifle Practice at Camp Perry in Ohio. The facility was established after a 1920 survey of police departments for cities with a population over 25,000 revealed that only 13 had established marksmanship training programs. In 1924, the police departments of all cities with populations of over 10,000 were invited to participate in national matches at Camp Perry.
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