Editor's Note: The following are the thoughts and
impressions News Messenger reporter Caleb Brabham had when he endured the same
training local police officers face.
It's nighttime and there has been a report of a break-in at
a garage. Armed with a Glock, I responded alone.
"Hello," I call as I walk, weapon drawn, into the
seemingly-abandoned garage. I hear movement in front of me. "Marshall Police. Come out!"
A few seconds later, a scruffy man climbs up from behind a
tool-strewn counter, keeping both of his hands hidden behind the counter.
"Let me see both your hands," I tell him.
"Congratulations," he said. "You busted the
guy who works here."
He steps out from the counter, but keeps his right hand
hidden behind the counter. I tell him again, "Put both hands in the
air."
"Is that necessary?" he asks about my weapon.
"I need you to step around the counter and put both
hands in the air," I say.
"I work here," he says.
"I would like to see some identification and I need you
to put both hands in the air, sir."
"I got it right here," the man nods to his
still-hidden right hand.
"Let me see both your hands. Both your hands. Slowly
raise your hands."
Then he draws something out, aimed at me, and we fire at one
another. The only difference is … his magazine is filled with staples. I fire
another shot before I realize the man is holding a staple gun.
Fortunately, it is only a simulation.
The training
Recently, the Marshall Police Department allowed the
Marshall News Messenger to take part in some training exercises undergone by
officers.
Marshall police use several methods for training their
officers; I partook of only two.
Given increasingly heated tension between law enforcement
and the public nationwide, I was interested in seeing the police perspective in
interaction with the public in a variety of cases.
In light of the 831 fatal police shootings in 2016,
according to the Washington Post as of Nov. 11, I especially wanted to know the
tension and the scrutiny law enforcement agents are under when it comes time
for them to use their weapon.
The first simulation of the day ends as the scruffy
assailant armed with a staplegun absorbs another hit from my Glock. Both the
tension and the scrutiny begin.
A computer program, called the virtual simulator, feeding
one of 600 scenarios, with a multitude of varying outcomes is projected onto a
blank wall at MPD. As the video ends MPD Training Coordinator Lt. Len Ames
assess my performance as I lower my airsoft weapon.
"What we're looking for is your reaction," Ames
said. "Most people pull the trigger immediately … you are in the vast
majority."
The simulation stops and Ames begins to go over the replay
of the scenario like a review of an officer's body camera.
"Let's assume the individual is now deceased and at
that point in time you have realized that for some reason this gentleman has
pulled out a stapler. Can you justify why you fired on him?"
"I gave him several opportunities to put both his hands
in the air and slowly at that," I said. "Instead, he pulls out a
stapler. Who's going to do that? Pull out a stapler like they're shooting a
gun."
"And that quick," Lt. Glen Stone said from behind
the computer in agreement. "You got it. A person in his right mind is
going to put his hands up."
"We're judged by a reasonability standpoint," Ames
said. "That's the standard. Is what he did reasonable and is what you did
reasonable?
"We talk about furtive movements. And the way he jerks
his hand out, you think how much time am I supposed to wait to see what it is?
We could've had him pull the staple gun or a pistol and in that snap second,
the officer has to make a decision."
Ames said the scenarios are designed not only to train
officers to give proper commands and gauge reactions in a given situation, but
also to start conversations between the officer and the trainer.
"With 600 of these scenarios we can run the officer
through a whole mess of different things, but I think the most valuable part is
the conversations we have; I don't care how accurate you are," Ames said.
"You pulled the trigger, so now we can talk about what happened. You may
not feel good when you go home that you shot a guy with a staple gun, but
there's a piece of you that understands - he didn't give me any choice."
I ask Lt. Ames if he ever had an officer get too
trigger-happy.
"I haven't yet found someone that was too
overzealous," Ames said. "People are more hesitant than anything. One
of the dangers in law enforcement now is people are worried how whatever
actions they take are going to be perceived."
Observe and report
Lt. Stone loads another scenario and I’m told not to react only
to observe. I'm conducting a traffic stop. The driver, a woman, steps out of
the vehicle wearing a bikini and holding her license high in the air.
"Officer, I don't know what I did, but here's my
license," she said.
The simulation ends and Ames asks me what I saw.
"There's someone in the car with her," I said
pointing to the passenger's side. The individual seems huddled down, like he's
hiding. I congratulate myself on a potential danger well-spotted.
But Ames isn't satisfied.
"What we see a lot with officers is they're going to
notice there's somebody else in the car. They're also taken aback the girl is
wearing a bikini top. Frankly, the men get distracted by it. Watch it again. I
want you to look to the door."
The scenario runs again and I watch the door: in the storage
pocket of the door is the silver handle of a gun poking out.
"We have run every officer through here. Give or take
50 guys have been run through this. Exactly one male and three females have
immediately picked up on there is a gun in the door. This simulation shows you,
you have to absorb a lot of information in a short period of time. Your eye
tends to be caught by the motion on the glare in the window. It's kind of
cheating you because a girl comes out in a bikini showing her license … but
it's obvious there's a silver handgun once it's pointed out to you."
The advantages of this system installed in August 2016 are
abundant, according to Marshall Police Chief Jesus "Eddie" Campa.
"It's real life training so they feel a little more
comfortable since they're being exposed to real life situations without
actually being put in a real life situation. It helps build confidence,"
Campa said. "It gives you that adrenaline rush. You might have seen every
scenario before, but there are still six or seven outcomes that can come out of
that scenario. I think it's a really great training tool. Sometimes I came out
on the short end of the stick, other times I came out on the winning
side."
Campa said the simulator was purchased through matching
grants, with the MPD putting up $26,000 to purchase a $52,000 machine.
But Ames said, as helpful as the machine is, it might feel a
little too safe, requiring the use of other training methods.
Force on Force
For the next training exercise, I'm taken out to MPD's
firing range, given protective gear and armed with a Glock that fires
paintball-like marker rounds and thrown into a live-action training scenario
involving a traffic stop.
Cautiously, I approach a halted vehicle as a part of a
routine traffic stop scenario. In my head I rehearse what I'm going to say to
the driver as I walk to the open window.
This is when the driver opens fire on me; I am shot in the
neck by a marker round. It is my third traffic stop and I'm already dead.
This exercise is regarded by law enforcement as "Forceon Force," a reality based tactical training system that allows officers
to practice their engagement in extreme situations such as a traffic stop
turned violent with the safety of guns armed with the paintball-like rounds.
"What I just did to you now, I could take you back to
the office and show you 10 videos of that," Ames said, leaning out the
window of the attacking vehicle parked on the MPD's firing range. "Where a
guy is just walking up, it's his 12th stop of the day and he gets right up to
the pillar. You can't even see well, but I can watch you in the mirror and
stick the gun out without even turning around very much."
Force on Force, Ames said, trains officers in a way the
simulator cannot.
"Those are the things we can teach people (through
Force on Force)," Lt. Ames said. "Although we can do (some of this)
on a simulator. There's no consequences there. It's still helpful. But just
because you play some kind of shooter game that doesn't allow you to come out
here in real life and be a Navy Seal. When I put you in a scenario where
somebody is shooting back at you, I have added another level of stress and
uncertainty and you're in a more realistic situation."
Heading back from the firing range, I'm still replaying my
death at the traffic stop and remembering the man with the staple gun, placing
myself under the scrutiny of the "media."
But I don't know what I could've done differently.
"It seems like a lot of these scenarios you put me
through today are no-win scenarios," I said to Ames. "I'm trying to
think of ways I could've done better (my first time doing them) - and there's
just no way."
Ames laughs kindly and nods his head; that was the point.
"A lot of these situations we are in are no-win
situations," Ames said. "It's a different kind of life, I guess. It'snot for everybody and not everybody
understands it or wants to understand it … if you stay in it for very long it's a passion and something you want to do."
