Training: RPD officers find themselves in violent scenarios

Routine traffic stops suddenly turning violent, a drunken man attempting to carry a baby and a convenience store robbery are all likely scenarios that police officers might have to face during their time on duty. But on April 19, four Ritzville Police officers found themselves handling all of these situations within an hour.

Police Chief Dave McCormick, and officers Mark Cameron, Tom Gracie and Hunter Klewin, each individually had the opportunity to spend one hour in a law enforcement-training simulator (LETS) where they were faced with these lifelike situations. The LETS system came to Ritzville in a trailer provided by Canfield, a third-party insurance administration that assists companies by providing risk management solutions.

During the Ritzville trainings, the police officers were placed into four different dangerous, yet possible, scenarios. Fred “Fritz” Howard is a retired police sergeant from Grant County, where he served on the force for 28 years, and who manages the trailer.

Howard has been traveling and training law enforcement officials around the state in with LETS system for about six years. The system has been used for around 10 years, and is used as a preventative measure to help protect officers and insurance providers.

“Canfield isn’t an insurance company, we’re a third party. The purpose of this training is to reduce liability and injury,” said Howard. “It’s real, it’s not a video game. It’s not a ‘fire five and holster’ like on the range.”

The training room is set up with a screen at the far end, four speakers for surround sound, a microphone on the ceiling, a projector with a bullet-sensing camera attached, a mounted shoot-back gun with a camera in front of it below the screen, and potential barriers on both walls to use as protection while under fire.

During the Ritzville Police officer’s training on Thursday, they did not have the live-fire action activated in order to allow the officers the opportunity to focus on their hands and technique. Because the officers did not receive live fire, the barriers were also not used during the training.

The live-fire gun is a paintball gun on a tripod that the instructor can monitor from inside of the control room. The camera allows the instructor to watch the trainees, how the react to situations, and when the live-fire option is being utilized, the instructor can aim and shoot the trainees.

The bullets shot are the same size as a paintball but are a soft rubber that allows the officer in training to know they were exposed during the exercise but it does not cause injury. If the officer is shot during the scenario, the video immediately ends and the scenario is complete.

When the officers enter the training area, they remove their gun, magazines, OC spray canister, and Taser gun from their belt. Similar items that are safe for use inside of the training simulator replace all of these protection devices.

The officers also receive an infrared flashlight that is used during the nighttime scenarios. The flashlight reflects on the screen as it would in reality, limiting the visibility for the officer and allowing the instructor to observe the technique each officer uses with the flashlight in one hand and a weapon in the other.

The officers receive a handgun, nearly identical to the one issued to them, and must reload the weapon at the beginning of each scenario. The magazine is filled with CO2, and only allows the officer to take 12 shots before they must reload the weapon, just like reality.

During each scenario, the trainees must determine what use of force is appropriate, if any, and act accordingly. The officers have the option to use any of the items they are carrying, including the flashlight, when the scene becomes violent.

After each scenario, Howard rewinds the video and allows the officer to observe their reaction time, technique and if the use of force was appropriate to the situation. Howard spends about five minutes after the conclusion of the scene debriefing the officer and discussing the options they had in the situation.

“You see it, you respond to it, we talk about it,” Howard explained to Officer Klewin after the first scenario.

The discussion starts with talking about the beginning of the scene and describing what were the officer’s initial thoughts. Howard plays the video and points out crucial moments in the scenario when the officer made a decision or should have made a decision.

The playback video also shows the recorded bullets or Taser shot emitted from the gun during the scenario. Different color dots show on the screen to show where the shots hit: a green dot means that the target had been hit but the shot was not fatal and a red dot emulates a fatal shot.

Even though the Taser does not actually release the probes during simulation, the camera monitors the distance the officer is from the suspect and where the probes would hit. If the officer is too far from the subject when the Taser is fired, only one probe strikes the suspect and without the complete circuit, the Taser is useless.

While the majority of the scenarios require some amount of violent defense, one scenario gave officers the option not to react based on the situation. The third scenario that officers were placed in involved them in a supermarket when they are off duty, with their son and a man holds up the store.

Officers have the option to carry their weapon when they are off duty, some do and some do not. In this situation, it is expected that the officer is carrying a holstered gun.

The majority of the officers in the training advised the man to lower his weapon and even though they were successful in having the robber drop his gun, another gunman was standing behind them. The officers may have “died” in this scenario because they were unaware of the second gunman.

There was one officer who simply backed away from the situation and stepped behind the aisle, allowing the gunman to steal the money from the cashier and escape from the store. The reasoning for the officer was that he was with his son, and he did not want to endanger his child and he could simply call in the robbery and have an on-duty cop respond.

“We have a smart cop here,” Howard said under his breath in the control room when watching the scenario unfold. Howard explained that while it is not wrong to try to have the gunman put down his weapon, it is an unnecessary risk to put a child in danger.

If an officer used lethal force during a scenario when it was not considered mandatory, Howard discussed the options with the officer and made the officer give a full account of the incident. If this incident had occurred in the line of duty, the officer would have to recount the story in a written statement.

“Details are important. You have to be able to accurately explain and describe why you made that decision,” said Howard to the officer. Howard continued to explain that if the officer leaves out crucial details, he could be accused of using unnecessary force and lose his badge.

Howard explained to each officer that technique and communication are the two most important qualities an officer can possess. Communication between officers decreases liability issues and increases positive relationships between officers and colleagues.

Howard had served as a Range Master for 18 years of his service and his skill set is why he is managing the trailer today. He believes the officers access to these simulation scenarios helps prepare them mentally for the real life scenarios.

“Little things show up in here and you have time to see them and react. For me, it’s really about helping the kids,” Howard said while observing an officer in the simulation.

The LETS trailer is expected to return to Ritzville next year for another training simulation for the officers. There are around 900 scenarios that Howard has access too, but all of the scenarios are preselected before the trailer is brought to each department.

Upon completion of the scenarios, Howard writes evaluations on each individual officer for Canfield in order to have a file on each department and officer. The LETS system benefits both officers and the insurance providers by lowering the liability rate for both parties.