ST. LOUIS — Local leaders signed off on a plan Wednesday to build a multi-million-dollar regional police training facility, an effort years in the making.

The top elected officials from St. Louis, St. Charles, Franklin and Jefferson counties all gave credit to one man for coming up with the initial idea: St. Louis Police Foundation member Bob Brinkmann.

Brinkmann on Wednesday said the idea came to him 17 years ago when he visited a state-of-the-art police training center in Colorado with his late wife. He came back thinking St. Louis-area officers needed a similar facility.

"I just thought we needed something regionally," Brinkmann said.

In 2021, Brinkmann started working on the concept with former St. Louis Public Safety Director Dan Isom and former county police Chief Jon Belmar. The

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