VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — The Virginia Beach Police training facility is getting its first major facelift since it opened in 2009 with millions in federal funding.
It's where police officers train for real-life scenarios—active shooters, pursuits and tactical responses.
The 225-acre property in Pungo first opened in the 1940s as an airfield. In the 60s it became a racetrack.
Then, as the need grew in the early 2000s, Virginia Beach Police officers transformed the space into the Creeds Law Enforcement Training Facility.
Now, the department says it has fallen into a state of disrepair and isn't being used to its full capacity for safety reasons.
Through multiple grants, Virginia Beach Police now have $15 million to make some major upgrades, with Congresswoman Jen Kiggans presenting the latest almost $700,000 Monday.
The department plans to replace the driving track, renovate buildings in the simulated city and build a new six-story rappel tower.
"When we talk about training and we talk about less lethal options, we talk about driving, we talk about pursuit training, we talk about de-escalation, it all happens here," said Virginia Beach Police Chief Paul Neudigate.
Kiggans says the more training and resources police have, the better.
"We know that the world is a dangerous place right now right. Not only locally in our communities, we worry about community safety, but on the world stage," she said. "We know that recruitment and retention has been challenging for our law enforcement and our military and so when we can support them by giving them a training facility that they can be proud of, that will be attractive for people that are looking to switch careers—we need those things."
Neudigate agrees that not only will the renovations help current officers, but it will also lend itself to recruitment and retention—a problem most departments are struggling with.
"We see too many organizations where they don’t have the support of the community, they don’t have the funding, they can’t invest in their officers. That’s not gonna happen in Virginia Beach," he said.
It’s not just the Virginia Beach Police Department that trains at the facility. They also welcome military and other police departments in the seven cities.
The department hopes to break ground by the fall of this year and finish by the summer of 2026.