Recently, I posted about the training that I received from my agency at the range on qualification day.
Previously, when I was at the academy a long time ago. I received some virtual and role playing scenario training. It was pretty primitive, but gave you a chance to see how you might behave under pressure or threat.
A couple of years ago, the range I shoot at when I am off duty offered a new feature. A virtual system that played video scenarios. It was disappointing from a learning point of view. It was basically a giant shoot-em-up video game. I learned nothing accept to not do it again.
Previous, we had used the local police college indoor range for qualifying and on occasion, use their virtual system. It was different from the range system. Not as well lit and the videos were clearly of lower resolution. The difference was the stress situation. You walked into a building and there was a man. He looked over and started yelling about being cheated. Then he picked up a brick and stood there. Then he advanced. When do you draw your gun? What do you say up to that point? What do you say after you have drawn your gun. When do you shoot?
My present agency has improved the training by obtaining a 5 screen surround system for virtual training. It has a thousand different scenarios. What do you do when someone is raising their voice to a person at a desk/counter (not police, just in a business office)? What should you do? Should you draw your gun? When? How about a less lethal option? When is your partner in danger?
We also had some simple scenario training. You are returning to the office from eating lunch down the block. Someone comes up to you complaining about all the police shootings or how children are being handled and taken away from their parent. How do you handle this. No expensive equipment is needed. We traded our GLOCKS for training guns (don’t fire ammo, but do go bang and eject cases and cycle the action so you will have to reload at some point. We were also given training tazers.
It was good useful training and cost nearly nothing. At the end of my go at this situation, I had talked the guy down and he wanted to shake hands. The player in this situation was supposed to react to the way you reacted.
Some others got defensive and it escalated. If you can learn from this, it is great training. Not everyone does.
Then we had another scenario with two aggressive players. You had to prevent them from getting an advantage on you like one on either side so they can rush you and jam you up or one gets behind you. They were unarmed, so the threshold level of your reaction was lower than just drawing and shooting.
One guy tazed both attackers. Someone else drew their GLOCK and held them at gunpoint. I used my baton to keep them at bay and move around them to withdraw. Other officers I have worked with say you cannot withdraw. So it is how someone will interpret what they think they should do.
Should you never back down, but stand tough? Should you try to de-escalate a situation? Are you giving a bad image if you do not scream and curse a person down? If this last one sounds bizarre, I remember two veteran officers who said you needed to control a situation and that included out shouting and out cursing the offender.
The important thing to remember for me is to be flexible in your response and think before you just walk into a situation. Many of the scenarios, both role playing and virtual have been about this. They also point out how you may not have any time to think this out and may have to just react with force.
Oh, and a good reason to go to the range and shoot a qualification drill over and over when you go is to reinforce your confidence in your ability to use your weapon and whether you can deploy it when needed.
Jim
