Occupying 460 acres in Moore County, and 113 acres in Montgomery County, Samarcand Training Academy provides basic, in-service, and advanced training for state law enforcement agencies, as well as juvenile justice officers and counselors. Many other local, and federal agencies also conduct training at Samarcand.
Samarcand offers 11 classrooms, dormitory space to house 172 students and 14 instructors, a dining hall, a gym, and a firearms training center with two ranges, and a tachouse. The campus also includes a state-of-the-art use of force training simulator, and other virtual training platforms, as well as an obstacle and conditioning course.
View Embed Upcoming ClassesSee the facilities across the campus.
Column ParagraphMission Statement: To flex to meet the training needs of the State of North Carolina’s public safety profession.
Vision Statement: We will strive to continually improve professional training services and state-of-the-art training resources through comprehensive collaboration with our training partners.
Core Values: We fully embrace the core values of the Department of Public Safety. Our core values are intended to focus on our mission of training in support of the greater mission of DPS.
Welcome to Samarcand Training Academy. Here at Samarcand, we believe experiential training is the most impactful and carries value throughout your career. As such, we put great effort into our training venues to best replicate the situation you are training for. We want you to feel a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment each time you leave our campus. We are always committed to continuous improvement and would love for you to let us know what we can do better. Thank you for your service and I look forward to a great future of cutting-edge training and networking.
In January 2023, the NC Department of Public Instruction’s Center for Safer Schools officially opened its temporary training facility on Samarcand’s Moore County campus. It features a newly renovated academic building, including two classrooms and two offices with seven adjacent cubicles.
The temporary facility will serve as a short-term home for CFSS while construction of a new state-of-the-art facility in nearby Montgomery County is underway.
In February 2022, the Department of Public Safety purchased 113 acres on the edge of the Town of Biscoe North Carolina, approximately 8 miles from Samarcand’s main campus in Moore County. This property was formerly the East Montgomery High School. The property is comprised of 113 acres.
The facility includes a fieldhouse, football field, baseball field, softball field, running track and auditorium.
View all current Center for Safety Schools training courses.
The facility is always evolving, and future plans include:
Read how Samarcand transformed from an open-air boys school to a 430-acre law enforcement training academy over the course of a century.
Samarcand originally opened in 1914 as an open-air school for boys and was known as Marienfeld Open-Air School from 1914-1916.
In 1917, the North Carolina Legislature purchased the 230 acres and in 1918 it became the State Home and Industrial School for Girls and Women, a correctional institution for young women.
In 1974, the state changed the name of the institution to Samarkand Manor and placed it under the purview of the North Carolina Department of Human Resources, Youth Division.
Samarkand Manor became one of five state training schools designed to rehabilitate delinquent children (both male and female) between the ages of 10 and 17. The school shifted its emphasis to treatment and therapy.
In 2011, the Division of Juvenile Justice closed Samarkand Manor and the property remained vacant until 2012 when Moore County Legislator James Boles Jr., submitted a bill to the North Carolina Legislature to provide funding to convert Samarkand Manor into a Corrections and Law Enforcement Training Center for the newly formed Department of Public Safety.
Session Law 2013-360 appropriated approximately $10.4 million dollars for DPS to renovate 14 buildings as well as build a firearms range. This Phase I conversion project included the renovation of six classrooms, dormitories to house 94 overnight students, and food services capabilities (cafeteria.)
Initial construction began in late 2014 and the Academy began conducting commuter classes in August 2015 with the implementation of Basic Correctional Officer Training.
During the following years, the academy continued to develop into the premier training facility that it is today.