$100K criminal justice simulation center slated at CMCC

A gift of $100,000 from the Davis Family Foundation to the Foundation for Maine’s Community Colleges will support construction of a facility for simulation training in criminal justice at Central Maine Community College in Auburn.

“This simulation center will be a dynamic facility for live-scenario training for students in criminal justice, forensic science and social services,” Matt Tifft, criminal justice instructor and chair of the public service and social science department at CMCC, said in a news release.

The center will be a ranch-style house with attached garage, briefing room and movable walls to allow instructors to constantly adapt the environment. The project will help the college ensure that public safety professionals are adequately prepared with curriculum and training that employ effective adult learning practices and real-skill development, according to the release.

The facility also will support CMCC’s growing forensic science program. The program, the only one of its kind in Maine, includes coursework in criminal investigation, criminalistics, death investigations, crime scene photography and crime scene management.

Tifft noted that CMCC hopes to allow area law enforcement agencies to use the simulation center to support their training efforts.

The college hopes to have the facility completed and ready for use in fall 2021.

The Yarmouth-based Davis Family Foundation is a public charitable foundation, established by Phyllis C. Davis and H. Halsey Davis of Falmouth, to support education, medical and cultural/arts organizations located primarily in Maine.