Tennessee breaks ground on $415M training facility for state law enforcement

The state of Tennessee is building a $415 million consolidated law enforcement campus in Nashville. The facility is expected to be complete by 2025. It’ll be the administrative headquarters for Tennessee’s Department of Correction and the Department of Safety & Homeland Security.

Gov. Bill Lee and other state elected officials broke ground on the new facility Wednesday on more than 800 acres near John C. Tune Airport. It’s named MALETA, an acronym for Multi-Agency Law Enforcement Training Academy.

It will include a firing range complex, hotel-type space for in-service personnel and an emergency vehicle operation course.

Funding for the campus was approved by the General Assembly in 2022 as part of the governor’s budget proposal. Lee said he realized the need for a new facility after touring the current one months after he was first elected.

“There were tiles missing and 40-year-old bathrooms and bunk rooms that I wouldn’t want to stay in,” Lee said.

Some elected state Democrats believe the money could be better spent on other initiatives.

Nashville Democrat Caleb Hemmer says he hopes the new facility leads to better-trained law enforcement and safer communities.