Market Place Mall To Be Site Of Police Training Tues. Night

Champaign’s Market Place Mall closes at 9 PM. But on Tuesday, June 3rd, it reopens at 10 --- not for the public, but for a police training exercise that is expected to last until 5 AM Wednesday morning.

About 70 members of the Champaign County Metro SWAT Team, from police departments throughout Champaign County, will take part in the drill  --- along with several volunteers playing other roles.

Champaign Police Lieutenant Jim Clark says Market Place Mall was last used for police training about six years ago. And three years ago, it was the site of a real emergency, in which police were called to the mall’s parking lot to keep a shooting incident from becoming deadly.

"It is a good location to train in", said Clark. "The size of the mall helps us also, because it is so vast and so large. We can keep a lot of different units busy, and it really challenges all of us to really do it thoroughly."

Clark says thes training exercise at Market Place Mall will center around munitions, but there will be no actual explosions. There will be signs posted to warn the public about the training exercise, but traffic will remain open in the area, and nearby businesses should not be affected.