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| More Than A Video Game: Simulators Train Officers in the Use of Force |
| By Tony Bertuca, Internet Reporter |
| Published: 06/13/2005 |
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You are alone in a dark hallway when the offender approaches. You yell, "FREEZE," as he lunges towards you with clenched fists. Adrenaline races through your body and you have a single second to react. You are armed with pepper spray, a baton, a pistol and harsh language. Which do you use? Luckily, officers in corrections, parole, probation, and other areas of law enforcement can prepare for such a scenario with multimedia video simulators that provide a valuable luxury officers won't have in real life: a restart switch. "In real life when the adrenaline is pumping, boy, that is a whole different ballgame," said Duane Cole, the Use of Force Program administrator for the Department of Probation and Parole in Multnomah County, OR. "Training is the time to make mistakes. Out there in the field is the wrong time." There are several video simulators on the market that enable use of force instructors to prepare trainees to respond to a variety of threats with the appropriate level of force. Cole and the other instructors in his department use the Range 2000 system developed by IES Interactive Training in Littleton, CO. The Range 2000 is operated from a personal computer and projects a videotaped scenario onto a large screen. Officers stand in front of the screen and are given practice weapons, like a pistol or can of pepper spray, that have been outfitted with an infrared laser. When pointed at a target on the screen, the laser triggers a reaction from the simulator, causing the videotaped offenders to shout, fight, and sometimes, shoot back. This week, Cole's department will demonstrate the training uses of the Range 2000 at the 6th Annual Innovative Technologies for Community Corrections Conference in Seattle, WA. Although IES has since upgraded to the Range 3000 and the new MILO system, Cole is demonstrating the original model because it remains a useful training tool that may encourage other law enforcement agencies to begin using video simulators. "This thing won't outdate itself," said Cole. "The Range 2000 takes everything you have learned in training, puts it into practical circumstances, and gives officers confidence in their ability to do things the right way under stress. That is really our goal as trainers." Ben Gruner, an expert from IES who trained Cole and members of his department to use the Range 2000, said that the system was still a viable resource for law enforcement and is far from obsolete. "The idea has not changed over time," said Gruner. "It [Range 2000] is still revolutionary because it offers you the ability to change the outcomes of each scenario." The Range 2000 comes loaded with dozens of job-specific scenarios for different law enforcement agencies like corrections, parole, probation, and police departments. Scenarios that include everything from transportation of prisoners to making arrests, have been created and pre-saved on the program's hard drive by filmmakers from IES and hired actors. But the simulator also allows different agencies to customize their own training situations by filming scenarios themselves, according to Gruner. Instructors in Multnomah County, who still don padded safety suits during hands-on training and brace themselves for a blow from a trainee's baton, have also become filmmakers that now direct, edit and act in scenarios for video simulations. Cole and his department have customized 15 scenarios specific to parole and probation, each one capable of branching off into several different training situations. An offender struck with a baton triggers a different scenario than one sprayed with mace, making each confrontation unique and unmemorizable. Actors playing the offenders are filmed taking certain actions like shouting, standing defiantly, falling down when subdued, striking the camera, shooting a gun, or running off-screen, to simulate an actual response to force. Chris Whitlow, a use of force instructor who works in Multnomah County with Cole, says that he and other instructors who customize scenarios try to use actors the trainees would not recognize to help make the experience more life-like. "We had one instructor who was a big, jovial kind of guy," said Whitlow. "We used him as a threat in one of the scenarios and the trainees who recognized him started laughing. They knew how nice he was and it removed them from the situation." So where do the simulated offenders come from? "I have some college-aged nephews," said Whitlow. "And once I was an actor but I wore a stocking cap and some sun glasses and nobody recognized me." Despite the advanced technology of the Range 2000, it could not function properly as a training tool without human trainers, according to Whitlow, who said that the focus of the training was not so much the simulation, but the debriefing afterwards in which trainees explains their response to the scenario and instructors analyze it and provide feedback. "We need that human element," said Whitlow. "It falls back on how an officer perceives a situation and whether or not it was reasonable. No computer can break that down." Gruner, who worked in law enforcement before joining IES, said that while some machines have been programmed to score performance, only a human instructor can provide targeted feedback about when to use force techniques rather than simply teaching how to use them. "If all you do is give me a hammer, everything starts looking like nails," said Gruner. "It is ultimately up to the student to articulate their actions and it is ultimately up to an instructor to see if those actions are justified and within the policy of their agency." Agencies that use the Range 2000 usually get a positive response from trainees, according to Gruner, although it can be an intense experience, triggering the same physiological response as a violent confrontation. "They experience sweaty palms, accelerated heart rate, and tunnel vision to a certain extent in the simulation," said Gruner. "I was training one civilian for a concealed weapons course and she was so scared, she peed in her pants." Although systems like the Range 2000 can be expensive upfront, they are cost-effective, according to Gruner, who said agencies save money in the long-run by eliminating incidents that increase the cost of liability insurance, and by decreasing the number of instructors needed to run an exercise. Multnomah County purchased the Range 2000 for approximately $50,000 in 2001, although it collected dust for three years because the county lacked someone with enough technical knowledge to operate it, according to Cole and Whitlow who implemented Range 2000 training in 2003. "You need to find the right people for your program," said Whitlow. "You can't be a technophobe. People can get comfortable with it." Multnomah County has approximately 30 officers who are certified as Range 2000 instructors and it has become a mandatory part of training for any law enforcement officer carrying a weapon. The county also offers the Range 2000 to other local law enforcement agencies that want to train with it. "In terms of a supplement to training, it is essential," said Cole. "It puts everything together and the more and more you do that, the more confidence you gain under stress." |
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