ANKENY, Iowa—The DMACC Foundation hosted an Open House and Ribbon Cutting on Friday, Sept. 9, to celebrate the new DMACC Criminal Justice Training Center on the College’s Ankeny Campus. The 1,500-square-foot training center provides a realistic setting, complete with traditional home furnishings and top-notch equipment, that allows for enhanced learning and training opportunities for DMACC Criminal Justice students, as well as criminal justice professionals from throughout Iowa and beyond. A total of 82 donors contributed more than $300,000 to help fund construction of the new Center.
DMACC President Rob Denson says the College’s new Criminal Justice Training Center “is truly a DMACC facility.” It was designed by the DMACC Architectural Technologies Program with the assistance of Program Chair and Professor Mike Gatzke, and constructed by students in the DMACC Building Trades Program under the direction of Program Chair and Professor Ned Rasmussen. Students in the DMACC Horticulture program also helped landscape the exterior.
The Center has already seen significant use by students and criminal justice agencies for training purposes. There is no other facility like it in Central Iowa, and very few comparable facilities exist on college campuses across the nation.
To learn more about the DMACC Criminal Justice Program and the new DMACC Criminal Justice Training Center, visit https://criminaljustice.dmacc.edu.
Pictured at the Ribbon Cutting are (left to right) Tara Connolly, Executive Director of the DMACC Foundation; Joe Pugel, Chair of the DMACC Board of Directors; Dr. Samantha O’Hara, DMACC Criminal Justice Program Co-Chair and Professor; Jake Hedgecock, Security Director at Prairie Meadows; Rob Johansen, Urbandale Police Chief; Rob Denson, DMACC President; Buzz Hoffman, DMACC Criminal Justice Professor Emeritus; Steve Barger, DMACC TSA Homeland Security Program Chair and Professor; Jessica Cole, DMACC Criminal Justice Program Co-Chair and Professor; and Jim Stick, Academic Dean of Liberal Arts at DMACC.
(contributed press release and photo courtesy DMACC)
