Skip Navigation

OU Police Department to Host On-Campus Training Beginning Tuesday, May 14

NEWS
Two people in red shirts and khakis setting up a bullet trap in a grassy field.

OU Police Department to Host On-Campus Training Beginning Tuesday, May 14

May 7, 2024

NORMAN, OK – For the second time in five years, OUPD in cooperation with the OU Athletic Department will host the Tacflow Academy’s Police Sniper Response to a Public Venue™ training. Taught since 2008, the curriculum has trained more than 1,000 international, federal, state, and local SWAT personnel charged with protecting large sports venues, including Super Bowls and Olympic games. This training is not open to the public. 

On Tuesday, officers will participate in training scenarios and responses from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. inside the Lloyd Noble Center.

The remainder of the week officers will train inside the Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium:

  • 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday
  • 4:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. Thursday
  • 12:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Friday

This opportunity allows participating officers to do realistic and meaningful training inside the venues in a safe manner. Officers are required to pass a stringent qualification test prior to shooting live rounds in the arena and stadium. The course utilizes specially designed bullet trapping targets that safely capture 100% of projectiles that are fired into them.

Since the initial Police Sniper Response to a Public Venue™ training hosted at the Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium and the Lloyd Noble Center in May of 2019, the multi-jurisdictional South Metro SWAT marksmen have conducted annual sustainment training each summer prior to the beginning of football season. 

Although all participating officers are required to use sound suppressors on their rifles, the public is advised that gunfire will be heard in the immediate vicinity of the Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium and the Lloyd Noble Center during training hours.

“This training course and the annual sustainment training demonstrate the university’s commitment to ensuring that police are afforded the opportunity to conduct realistic training inside the venues that they protect. This type of training is part of our annual preparation for OU football and other large public events,” said OUPD Deputy Chief Kent Ray.

About the University of Oklahoma

Founded in 1890, the University of Oklahoma is a public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. As the state’s flagship university, OU serves the educational, cultural, economic and health care needs of the state, region and nation. OU was named the state’s highest-ranking university in U.S. News & World Report’s most recent Best Colleges list. For more information about the university, visit ou.edu.


Recent News

Research
February 23, 2026

OU Researchers Are Transforming Electric Buses to Support Cities’ Energy Resilience

To combat power outages and extreme weather events, a team led by University of Oklahoma researchers has helped launch a project utilizing electric school buses as a backup energy resource.


Impact
February 23, 2026

University of Oklahoma’s Research Excellence Propels It to Top 100 National Ranking Among U.S. Medical Institutions

The University of Oklahoma Health Campus was recently recognized for its increased momentum in advancing discoveries that change lives, achieving the state’s first Top 100 national ranking based on funding from the National Institutes of Health, according to the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research. The ranking—the highest in OU’s history and in the state—solidifies the University’s position as the state’s leading driver of health-related research.


Research
February 19, 2026

From Family Loss to Brain Research: A Scientist’s Mission to Prevent Cognitive Decline

Stefano Tarantini, an assistant professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, spends his days in the laboratory searching for answers to the cognitive decline that too often plagues older adults.