For a police officer, firearms training is more than just hitting the bull’s-eye on some paper target.
It’s about exercising good judgement while making split-second decisions under pressure.
‘What the bad guy does is one thing, what we do is another,? said Oxford Village Police Sgt. Mike Solwold, a firearms instructor for the department.
All this month village police officers have been testing, reviewing and critiquing their judgement skills thanks to a $78,000 weapon simulator on loan from the Federal Bureau of Investigation Detroit Field Office.
It’s called FATS, which stands for ‘Firearms Training Systems,? and it provides judgement, tactical and arms training experiences utilizing a weapon simulator.
FATS consists of a large projection screen, projector and a computer loaded with 61 live-action scenarios a law enforcement officer could face in the field.
Hostage situations, encounters with fugitives, traffic stops, bank robberies, convenience store robberies, purse snatchings, a breaking and entering in progress ? they’re all played out on the screen by actors.
‘This is as close to real life training as we can get,? said Officer Jason Loudermilk, a firearms instructor for the village department.
All of the scenarios last about 10 seconds or less because in the real world ‘you’ve got a fraction of second to decide what’s going to happen,? according to Loudermilk.
‘In this field, you’ve got this much time to make a decision about whether you should do something or not,? said Solwold snapping his fingers.
Because real life is unpredictable, the same scenarios can be altered to judge an officer’s responses to different variables.
For instance, in the convenience store situation, the customer arguing with the clerk at the counter turns around to reveal he has either a gun in one scenario, a flashlight in another.
‘This shows an actual situation ? should you utilize your weapon or not,? Solwold. ‘We’re using the ones that relate to the type of work that we do around here.?
During the scenarios, the officer is armed with a semi-automatic handgun simulator that looks and feels like the real thing from its action to its weight.
The gun is hooked up to a tank ofcarbon dioxide gas which provides sufficient recoil after each shot to disturb the officer enough to require him or her to reacquire the target each time.
‘It’s just like having a real gun,? Solwold said.
Because the weapon simulator emits an invisible laser beam each time it’s fired, Soldwold said, ‘We can replay the scenes and show where the shots actually went.?
Soldwold said the main thing FATS helps teach is the importance of giving clear verbal commands ? such as stop, drop your weapon, hands above your head, down on the ground, etc. ? knowing your situation and getting the situation under control.
‘Nobody fails. This is all a learning experience. You learn from your mistakes.?
If it’s a situation where lethal force is required because the suspect is shooting at you, Solwold said the officer must determine, ‘Do you return fire if there’s people in the background? Is it a good situation??
‘You don’t want to return fire if you’re putting somebody else at risk,? he said.
In a shooting situation, officers must consider the innocent people they can see as well as the ones they can’t see.
‘You never know where a bullet’s going to go. It can easily go through a wall and you don’t know what’s on the other side of that wall,? Solwold said.