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Virtual training
Hanceville police learn through computer programmed scenarios
By Patrick McCreless
STAFF WRITER
HANCEVILLE — Hanceville Police Officer Matt Hollingsworth slowly approached another officer speaking to a recent victim of domestic violence. Suddenly, a man brandishing a loaded shotgun burst from the door of a nearby house.
With firearm in hand, Hollingsworth ordered the suspect to drop his weapon and get on the ground. After a short but tense standoff, the man complied with the commands.
Capt. Jimmy Rodgers paused his computer.
“Now, what would you have done if he hadn’t followed your orders,” Rodgers asked Hollingsworth.
Hollingsworth was one of the Hanceville Police Department’s 10 officers who received a type of virtual simulation training Tuesday.
“If he wouldn’t have obeyed my commands, I would have walked to him cautiously,” Hollingsworth said.
Rodgers said the Alabama Municipal Insurance Corporation provided the unique training equipment to the department for several days — at a cost of $25 per officer.
“This is the first time we’ve had it,” Rodgers said. “We’ve been waiting on it for three months.”
The equipment, referred to as the Firearms Training System, includes a special computer that projects live-action video of different law enforcement scenarios, such as school shootings, traffic stops and armed robberies.
“Some (scenarios) are a little bit dramatic, but it helps prepare the officer for the unexpected,” Rodgers said.
Officers who participate in the training are armed with replica 45-caliber handguns loaded with clips of compressed air. Each gun has an electronic sensor, which allows officers to shoot suspects much like a video game.
However, unlike video games, the officers are required to provide voice commands for each scenario.
“When they give commands, we have the option of what we want the perpetrator to do,” Rodgers said as he operated the computer.
Once a particular scenario ends, the computer lists the number of shots fired and the number of times the participant shot a suspect.
“I like it ... it’s actually real good training,” Hollingsworth said.
Hollingsworth teamed up with Officer Danny Oden during another scenario in which the two responded to a shooting on a bus. After entering the bus, the officers found a man sitting in the back with his hands hidden. After disobeying several orders, the suspect revealed a live hand grenade, at which point Oden shot him several times and the two officers “exited” the bus.
A few seconds later, the bus exploded.
Though Oden enjoyed the training, he said it cannot teach everything needed to be an effective police officer.
“They only prepare you for so much,” Oden said. “Real life is much different.”
- Patrick McCreless can be reached by e-mail at patrickm@cullmantimes.com or by telephone at 734-2131 ext. 270.
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