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November 21, 2009

Training simulator tests APD officers

Device rented to gauge decision making

By Christina M. Wright, Herald Bulletin Staff Writer

ANDERSON – An officer pulls over a motorcyclist for running a stop sign. The motorcyclist gets off of his ride. He’s confrontational. But his hands are visible.

At that point, what does the officer do?

That scenario, and more, has played on a wall-sized screen for the past two weeks so that Anderson Police officers could practice their decision-making skills on the Firearms Training System, according to training instructor Officer Jim Rhodes.

“It portrays real-world situations where you have a chance to review your actions,” said Sgt. Shawn Richwine, of APD.

Rhodes said Anderson officers rarely need to fire their weapons, and are required to visit the live gun range at least five times a year.

However, the department has rented the FATS machine at least once a year for the past 10 years to keep officers on their toes, especially for traffic stops.

“This is a split-second decision making,” Rhodes said. “They are alive and moving and we can’t do that with a paper target.”

As an officer stands in front of the screen with a life-like gun that’s corded to the machine, Rhodes selects different scenarios. Throughout each scenario, Rhodes can change how the people on the screen respond to the officer.

Afterward, Rhodes and the officer review where his cross-hairs were throughout the scenario and whether his shots were clean and justified.

Although the machine can train more than one officer at a time, Rhodes said he usually trains individuals because it’s more telling.

“We want to see individually that they’re able to make those decisions, not as a group,” Rhodes said.

Officers are expected to verbally and physically respond, even letting dispatch know their location and calling for backup.

Throughout the exercise, officers must remember all of their training and obey procedures. When danger is sensed, it’s OK to pull their weapons. But it’s not OK to shoot a suspect without seeing a weapon, even if a man speaks in demon voices with his hands in his sweatshirt as he rocks steadily back and forth (a FATS scenario).

“As we’re trained, we are continually going through the level we’re at on the force continuum,” said APD’s Richwine.

Sometimes, the machine can’t cover all possible police procedures.

Richwine was faced with a suspect wielding a shovel with which he had been beating a man.

“Taser,” Richwine called over his shoulder. But that option wasn’t available to Rhodes.

Both officers agreed that it would have been the best option to stun the man in that scenario.

As the scenarios played — a cross-dresser who mounts the patrol car, three men known to be gang-related confrontationally get out of their car, a suspicious vehicle pulls into a vacant lot — they showcased just how many decisions officers make in less than a second as those situations turn violent.

Officers invited some city workers to try last week in hopes they would recognize why officers are always aware. Even the annoying officer who shines a flashlight into the car during a traffic stop is there for safety reasons.

“Traffic stops are the most unpredictable actions that officers take,” Richwine said. “Things can happen.”

Contact Christina M. Wright, 640-4883, christina.wright@heraldbulletin.com.

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