
Hogan's Alley is a
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...
training facility operated by the
FBI Academy
The FBI Academy is the Federal Bureau of Investigation's law enforcement training and research center near the town of Quantico in Prince William County, Virginia. The academy occupies 547 acres (221 ha) on the US Marine Corps Base Quantico. It ...
in
Marine Corps Base Quantico
Marine Corps Base Quantico (commonly abbreviated MCB Quantico) is a United States Marine Corps installation located near Triangle, Virginia, covering nearly of southern Prince William County, Virginia, northern Stafford County, and southe ...
near
Quantico,
Prince William County
Prince William County lies beside the Potomac River in the Commonwealth of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 482,204, making it Virginia's second most populous county. The county seat is the independent city of Manassas. A part ...
,
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
. Opened in 1987, Hogan's Alley is a full-scale replica of a nondescript town in the United States, spread over approximately . The facility is used to train
federal law enforcement agents in realistic urban environments that cannot be fully emulated by, or would not be fitting in, traditional training facilities such as
kill house
A kill house or shoot house is a live ammunition small arms shooting range used to train military and law enforcement personnel for Close-quarters combat, close contact engagements in urban combat environments. Designed to mimic residential, co ...
s. The "Hogan's Alley" name originated from ''
Hogan's Alley'', a popular 1890s
comic strip
A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...
by
Richard F. Outcault
Richard Felton Outcault (; January 14, 1863 – September 25, 1928) was an American cartoonist. He was the creator of the series ''The Yellow Kid'' and ''Buster Brown'' and is considered a key pioneer of the modern comic strip.
Life and career ...
that centered around the titular fictional slum alley in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
.
Description
Hogan's Alley is located on the grounds of the FBI Academy, roughly behind the
FBI Laboratory
The FBI Laboratory (also called the Laboratory Division) is a division within the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation that provides forensic analysis support services to the FBI, as well as to state and local Law enforcement agency, l ...
. The facility is an open-air complex consisting of several buildings constructed to resemble establishments typically seen in an archetypical American small town, including a
post office
A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...
, a
pharmacy
Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medication, medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it ...
, a
motel
A motel, also known as a motor hotel, motor inn or motor lodge, is a hotel designed for motorists, usually having each room entered directly from the Parking lot, parking area for motor vehicles rather than through a central Lobby (room), lo ...
, a fully-operational
Subway, a
pawn shop
A pawnbroker is an individual that offers secured loans to people, with items of personal property used as collateral. A pawnbrokering business is called a pawnshop, and while many items can be pawned, pawnshops typically accept jewelry, ...
, a
pool hall
A billiard hall, also known as a pool hall, snooker hall, pool room or pool parlour, is a place where people get together for playing cue sports such as pool, snooker or carom billiards. Such establishments commonly serve alcohol and often ...
, a
laundromat
A self-service laundry, coin laundry, or coin wash, is a facility where clothes and some household textiles are washed and dried without much personalized professional help. They are known in the United Kingdom as launderettes or laundrettes, ...
, a
barber
A barber is a person whose occupation is mainly to cut, dress, groom, style and shave hair or beards. A barber's place of work is known as a barbershop or the barber's. Barbershops have been noted places of social interaction and public discourse ...
, a
jewelry store, a
bar
Bar or BAR may refer to:
Food and drink
* Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages
* Candy bar
** Chocolate bar
* Protein bar
Science and technology
* Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment
* Bar (tropical cyclone), a laye ...
, a
movie theater
A movie theater (American English) or cinema (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), also known as a movie house, cinema hall, picture house, picture theater, the movies, the pictures, or simply theater, is a business ...
, and a suburban
cul-de-sac
A dead end, also known as a ''cul-de-sac'' (; , ), a no-through road or a no-exit road, is a street with only one combined inlet and outlet.
Dead ends are added to roads in urban planning designs to limit traffic in residential areas. Some d ...
, among other businesses and structures, several of which are named after or resemble locations, events, and figures from the FBI's history.
Although it strongly resembles a town, Hogan's Alley is not actually inhabited nor incorporated, and most of the buildings are either prop-filled
sets or disguised academy facilities such as classrooms and offices. Still, some genuine confusions have happened: the prop mailboxes in Hogan's Alley reportedly had real mail regularly placed in them by confused postal workers, to the point that the FBI ordered them welded shut to stop the mail deliveries; and a contracted painter working at Hogan's Alley once attempted to purchase a car from the facility's fake
car dealership
A car dealership, or car dealer, is a business that sells new or used cars, at the retail level, based on a dealership contract with an automaker or its sales subsidiary. Car dealerships also often sell spare parts and automotive maintena ...
, apparently unaware it was not actually for sale.
Hogan's Alley is used to teach agents investigative techniques, firearms skills, and defensive tactics. Scenarios taught using Hogan's Alley are diverse and include
criminal investigation
Criminal investigation is an applied science that involves the study of facts that are then used to inform criminal trials. A complete criminal investigation can include Search and seizure, searching, interviews, interrogations, Evidence (law), ...
s, evidence processing, conducting interviews and searches,
police standoff
A siege () . is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or by well-prepared assault. Siege warfare (also called siegecrafts or poliorcetics) is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict characte ...
s,
crisis negotiation
Crisis negotiation is a Law enforcement agency, law enforcement technique used to communicate with people who are threatening violenceStrentz, Thomas (2006). ''Psychological aspects of crisis negotiation.'' CRC Press, (workplace violence, domesti ...
,
raids,
stakeout
Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior, many activities, or information for the purpose of information gathering, influencing, managing, or directing. This can include observation from a distance by means of electronic equipment, such a ...
s, apprehension operations,
close-quarters battle
Close-quarters battle (CQB), also called close-quarters combat (CQC), is a close combat situation between multiple combatants involving ranged (typically firearm-based) or melee combat. It can occur between military units, law enforcement and cr ...
, and following police
rules of engagement.
The facility is also used to trial new tactics and strategies before they are used operationally.
During
training exercise
A military exercise, training exercise, maneuver (manoeuvre), or war game is the employment of military resources in training for military operations. Military exercises are conducted to explore the effects of warfare or test tactics and strat ...
s, Hogan's Alley is "populated" by agents, professional actors, and local residents who
roleplay parts appropriate to the scenarios, such as suspects, robbers, terrorists, drug dealers, hostages, civilians, and local law enforcement.
Use of firearms is mostly simulated using
blank
Blank or Blanks may refer to:
*Blank (archaeology), a thick, shaped stone biface for refining into a stone tool
*Blank (cartridge), a type of gun cartridge
*Blank (Scrabble), a playing piece in the board game Scrabble
*Blank (solution), a solutio ...
rounds,
simunition
A wax bullet is a non-lethal projectile made of wax material — often paraffin wax or some mixture of waxes and other substances that produce the desired consistency — that mimics the external ballistics but not the terminal ballistics, terminal ...
s,
paintballs
Paintball is an equipment-intensive sport and in order to safely conduct a game, every player requires a paintball marker, marker with propellant to fire the paint, a mask to protect the eyes and face, Paintball equipment#Paintballs, paintballs, a ...
, and projected targets used in tandem with recoil-simulating
light gun
A light gun is a pointing device for computers and a control device for arcade and video games, typically shaped to resemble a pistol.
Early history
The first light guns were produced in the 1930s, following the development of light-sensi ...
s, though Hogan's Alley is also used for
live fire exercise
A live fire exercise (LFX) is a military exercise in which live ammunition and ordnance is used, as opposed to blanks or dummies. The term can also be found in non-military usage.
Military
Militaries usually use live-fire exercises as an op ...
s.
Hogan's Alley is primarily used by FBI Academy classes and new recruits, though other frequent users include
FBI Special Weapons and Tactics Teams, the
Hostage Rescue Team
The Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) is the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) elite tactical unit. The HRT was formed to provide a full-time federal law enforcement tactical capability to respond to major terrorist incidents throughout the Uni ...
, the
security detail
A security detail, often known as a PSD (protective services detail, personal security detachment, personal security detail) or PPD (personal protection detail), is a protective team assigned to protect the personal security of an individual or ...
s assigned to protect the
FBI director
The director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), a United States federal law enforcement agency, and is responsible for its day-to-day operations. The FBI director is appointed for a ...
and
U.S. Attorney General
The United States attorney general is the head of the United States Department of Justice and serves as the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government. The attorney general acts as the principal legal advisor to the president of the ...
, recruit classes of
Drug Enforcement Administration
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is a Federal law enforcement in the United States, United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating illicit Illegal drug trade, drug trafficking a ...
(whose academy is located across from the FBI Laboratory), and personnel from other law enforcement agencies.
The facility is also occasionally used to train lieutenants at the
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionar ...
' nearby
Basic School
The Basic School (TBS) is where all newly commissioned and appointed (for warrant officers) United States Marine Corps officers are taught the basics of being an "Officer of Marines." The Basic School is located in Stafford County, Virginia to ...
in
urban warfare
Urban warfare is warfare in urban areas such as towns and cities. Urban combat differs from combat in the open at both Military operation, operational and the Military tactics, tactical levels. Complicating factors in urban warfare include the p ...
.
History
The first reference to a training facility called "Hogan's Alley" was a
shooting range
A shooting range, firing range, gun range or shooting ground is a specialized facility, venue, or field designed specifically for firearm usage qualifications, training, practice, or competitions. Some shooting ranges are operated by milita ...
at
Camp Perry
Camp Perry is a United States National Guard, National Guard training facility located on the shore of Lake Erie in northern Ohio near Port Clinton, Ohio, Port Clinton. In addition to its regular mission as a military training base, Camp Perry a ...
near
Port Clinton, Ohio
Port Clinton is a city in and the county seat of Ottawa County, Ohio, United States, located at the mouth of the Portage River on Lake Erie. The population was 6,025 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Port Clinton micropolita ...
.
Apparently first constructed around 1919 for a series of
shooting contests called the National Matches, Hogan's Alley was designed to resemble either a destroyed French village
or "a street in a
slum
A slum is a highly populated Urban area, urban residential area consisting of densely packed housing units of weak build quality and often associated with poverty. The infrastructure in slums is often deteriorated or incomplete, and they are p ...
section of a town".
The shooter would walk through the alley and shoot pop-up targets that would appear from behind doors, windows, walls, and chimneys.
Its law enforcement connection arose from its frequent use by the Special Police School, a marksmanship-centric
police academy
A police academy, also known as a law enforcement training center, police college, or police university, is a training school for police cadets, designed to prepare them for the law enforcement agency they will be joining upon graduation, or to o ...
established at Camp Perry in 1926 by the
National Rifle Association
The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is a gun rights advocacy group based in the United States. Founded in 1871 to advance rifle marksmanship, the modern NRA has become a prominent Gun politics in the United States, gun rights ...
and the
U.S. Army
The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...
's National Board for the Promotion of Rifle Practice to help train police officers (who, at the time, were reported to have lacked dedicated marksmanship programs as part of their training) and FBI agents in firearm techniques.
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, the Special Police School was closed and Camp Perry was used as a
prisoner-of-war camp
A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured as Prisoner of war, prisoners of war by a belligerent power in time of war.
There are significant differences among POW camps, inte ...
; when the Special Police School was reopened in 1956, Hogan's Alley was not part of its facilities, and the School declined into the 1960s as more police forces adopted their own marksmanship training programs.
When the first FBI Academy was constructed in Quantico in 1939, it did not feature simulated environments similar to Hogan's Alley, but in 1945 a "surprise target range" with similar electronically controlled pop-up targets was constructed on the academy grounds. In the early 1950s, to process an influx of new agents with the start of the
Cold War
The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
, Henry L. Sloan,
special agent in charge
In the United States, a special agent is an official title used to refer to certain investigators or detectives of federal, military, tribal, or state agencies who primarily serve in criminal investigatory positions. Additionally, some special ...
of firearms training, recommended an expansion of the academy's shooting ranges to Assistant Director Hugh H. Clegg, including one called "Hogan's Alley". This range was clearly inspired by the Camp Perry rendition, and was a 120-foot façade of six house-like structures featuring similar life-size photographic pop-up targets positioned in the windows and doors; agents had to decide whether to shoot based on the circumstances. Construction of this rendition of Hogan's Alley was completed in April 1954.
When the modern FBI Academy was constructed in 1972, it also did not originally contain facilities similar to the previous Hogan's Alley ranges. The decision to construct a modern rendition of Hogan's Alley arose in the 1980s in the aftermath of the
1986 FBI Miami shootout
On April 11, 1986, a shootout occurred between field agents for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and two armed men in what is now Pinecrest, Miami-Dade County, Florida. The two men, former U.S. Army servicemen Michael Lee Platt and W ...
, in which two FBI agents were killed and five others were wounded after they were outgunned in a
shootout
A shootout, also called a firefight, gunfight, or gun battle, is a confrontation in which parties armed with firearms exchange gunfire. The term can be used to describe any such fight, though it is typically used in a non-military context or to ...
while attempting to apprehend a pair of violent bank robbers in
Pinecrest, Florida
Pinecrest is a suburban village in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The village is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 18,388.
Pinecrest is governed by a five-member vill ...
. The shootout indicated that FBI agents had to handle more "shoot-don't-shoot" situations than regular police officers, and that they needed more diverse and realistic training scenarios to avoid a repeat of the incident. Funding to build a new training facility for this purpose was allocated to the FBI shortly after.
The FBI sought the advice and assistance of Hollywood
set designer
Scenic design, also known as stage design or set design, is the creation of scenery for theatrical productions including plays and musicals. The term can also be applied to film and television productions, where it may be referred to as prod ...
s in the planning and construction of Hogan's Alley, to ensure the town looked and felt as real as possible.
The facility was completed and opened for use in 1987.
Since its opening, Hogan's Alley has been expanded upon with additional environments to increase the possible training scenarios and better suit the evolving nature of crime and terrorism. A cul-de-sac featuring suburban-style houses of varying designs was added to the facility in the early 2000s. In 2024, Hogan's Alley was updated to include a nightclub, a movie theater with a proper interior (the existing one was a disguised office), and adjoining rooms and corridors that could be modified to resemble different interiors such as
school
A school is the educational institution (and, in the case of in-person learning, the Educational architecture, building) designed to provide learning environments for the teaching of students, usually under the direction of teachers. Most co ...
s and
office
An office is a space where the employees of an organization perform Business administration, administrative Work (human activity), work in order to support and realize the various goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a po ...
s, to help with
active shooter training.
See also
* ''
Hogan's Alley'' – 1984 video game simulating a pop-up shooting range, based on the 1954 Hogan's Alley
*
Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms
The Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center (MCAGCC), also known as 29 Palms, is the largest United States Marine Corps base. The base covers a total area of 1,102 square miles.
It was a census-designated place (CDP) officially known as Twentynin ...
– USMC facility that includes a large replica of a Middle Eastern town
*
Metropolitan Police Specialist Training Centre – similar facility operated by the
Metropolitan Police in
Gravesend
Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, situated 21 miles (35 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross (central London) on the Bank (geography), south bank of the River Thames, opposite Tilbury in Essex. Located in the diocese of Roche ...
,
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
References
Citations
Sources
*
*
External links
*
{{FBI
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal police academies in the United States
Shooting ranges in the United States
Towns in Prince William County, Virginia