Environmental Advocates Protest Planned Police Shooting Range
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Verbal shots were fired Wednesday morning over a proposed firing range that would be built for the Chicago Police Department on the Southeast Side.
As WBBM Newsradio's Bernie Tafoya reports, the outdoor firing range would be set up on 33 acres of land near the southern edge of the city at 2024 E. 134th St., east of the Bishop Ford Freeway and west of the T.J. O'Brien Dam on the Calumet River.
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Peggy Salazar, of the Southeast Environmental Task Force, says all kinds of wildlife in nearby wetlands, especially water fowl, could be affected. Egrets, herons and other birds are among those that roost nearby.
"We don't know how sensitive they are to that kind of noise going off, and also, the area currently is somewhat isolated," Salazar said, "so the birds are probably there because it is somewhat isolated."
Salazar says her group is not opposed to the Police Department having an outdoor financing range, just that the department wants to put it on the South Side.
The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District controls the land, which is now used as a landfill. It will vote on the proposal this week.
The MWRD actually voted 7 to 2 in 2010 to allow the Police Department to lease the firing range, but the proposal went dormant on the city's side until Mayor Rahm Emanuel recently resurrected it, according to published reports.
If given final approval, the 40-person shooting range will be open to current and retired Chicago Police officers, and suburban departments, and will also be open to state and federal law enforcement officers.
