GUILDERLAND — For years, Guilderland Police trained in the vacant houses bought up by Pyramid between Route 20 and Crosgates Mall where a Costco warehouse is to be built.

“There’s no plan going forward into the future with any kind of training there,” Police Chief Daniel McNally told The Enterprise this week. “It was in those vacant buildings over the past few years.”

At the May 20 Guilderland Town Board meeting, Robyn Gray, who chairs the Guilderland Coalition for Responsible Growth, raised concerns she’d heard about police training at the Woodlawn Sportsmen’s Club on East Lydius Street and also spoke of the training in the ghost neighborhood in front of Crossgates.

Pyramid began secretly buying those houses years ago and, in 2011, started boarding them up, making living there untenable for remaining residents. The last privately owned house in the neighborhood, at 8 Rielton Court, was purchased on Feb. 26 by Pyramid LLC Guilderland Devco for $1.15 million. Demolition began in early May.

“SWAT training was going on there in those homes …,” Gray said. “You could see the smoke bombs. You could see the uniforms. You could see the vehicles. You could watch them do it.”

A SWAT team is a Special Weapons And Tactics team called to high-risk situations.

McNally said that, while Guilderland and other departments did use the vacant homes for practice drills, there were never SWAT team drills.

“Most departments wear our bulletproof vests on the outside now,” said McNally, “which looks like a SWAT vest that has ‘police’ in big letters on the back. So sometimes that term is thrown around … I can assure you, what we have our officers wear daily is much lighter than what true SWAT gear is.”

It is mandatory for Guilderland officers to wear bulletproof vests. “They don’t have the option; by policy, they have to wear a bulletproof vest,” McNally said, to make sure they’re “going to go home safe at the end of the day.”

The drills that were conducted in the vacant neighborhood were to simulate situations police might encounter, said McNally. “Like a domestic violence incident where there might be a weapon … where we practice our entries, our team moves into a building,” he said.

It’s useful, McNally said, for police to train in “a building that’s accurate as far as bedrooms and furniture and stuff to help us with our movements in case we have to use that in our official duties.”

McNally stressed that Guilderland Police and other agencies that trained in the ghost neighborhood never used live ammunition. Rather, “simunition” was used. 

“It’s like a blank, like what you would see at a track event where they fire a starter pistol …,” McNally explained. “We never use live rounds.”

Gray brought up the training at Pyramid’s ghost neighborhood because she had heard concerns that similar police training was going on at Woodlawn, a private gun club.

“Neighbors have seen people dressed in SWAT-like attire shooting and they’ve heard the sound of automatic weapons,” said Gray.

She said she had checked with attorneys and there is nothing in state or town law about the management of gun clubs. “The only thing that I can see is that, if they break the noise ordinance where they’re shooting at times other than when they can … then something can be done. 

“But I think there’s fear on the part of neighbors in that area [asking] ‘What’s going on there? Why are there people dressed in SWAT uniforms there?’”

No one immediately answered calls placed by The Enterprise to the Woodlawn Sportsmen’s Club.

The Woodlawn’s website says the club has operated for more than 60 years and is “dedicated to fellowship, training & education. Safety is our number one priority.”

The “members only” club has 20 acres with three outdoor ranges for firearms:

— 117-yard range for rifle or shotgun;

— 25-yard range for handguns and .22 rimfire; and

— 5-point trap field for shotgun.

McNally said his department had never used Woodlawn for training.

“That’s a private club,” he said, “and I think they do contract with various agencies to do their department qualifications there, but that’s not something that we would control.”

McNally also said he was “not aware” of assault rifles being used at Woodlawn.

He went on to explain that police departments are required by the state to have their officers pass firearms tests annually.

For its qualifications, Guilderland used the Colonie Police range and the rifle range on Grant Hill Road maintained by the State Police, McNally said.

“We’ve never used the Woodlawn Sportsmen’s Club but I know they might contract out with other agencies for their qualification rounds,” he said.

Guilderland officers qualify twice a year, in the spring and fall, he said.

Every Guilderland officer carries a handgun, a 9-millimeter Glock and they also have to qualify with a patrol rifle; Guilderland uses M4s, he said.

“So we train on our patrol rifles, but we have tasers, OC [oleoresin capsicum spray], batons, all of those weapons that we use, we train on all of those,” said McNally.

The qualifications, he said, are on a pass-fail basis.

Gray asked the town board of police training at Woodlawn, “Do they have permission to do that? And is that appropriate to do in that kind of a residential area?”

“Good questions; I don’t know the answer,” responded Supervisor Barber, saying he would check with the police chief.

“Given the times that we’re living in,” said Gray, “people’s awareness and concerns are a little bit higher than you would expect.”