LA Times
http://www.latimes.com/wires/20010630/tCB00V1486.html
Saturday, June 30, 2001
High-Tech Firing Range in Wisconsin
Associated Press Writer
GREEN BAY, Wis.-- At a high-tech police firing range in Wisconsin,
targets have gotten a lot more realistic than paper bull's-eyes and
cardboard silhouettes.
The interactive training system at Northeast Wisconsin Technical
College uses computers, two-way video cameras and movie screens to test
how police react to real-life situations. Officers carrying their own
pistols, loaded with live rounds, must decide whether to use deadly force.
In one scenario presented by the training system, two officers were
confronted with the live video image of an actor holding a shotgun to his
chin.
"Put the gun on the ground," shouted one of the officers, his
revolver drawn. "Put the gun down and we will discuss this."
Instead, the actor lowered his weapon, leveling it at the officer and
his partner. Both officers opened fire.
The actor collapsed to the floor -in a semitrailer a few hundred feet
away, where his performance was being taped. The movie screen in front of
the officers was riddled with bullets.
"This is just excellent," said Officer Dwayne Wierzba of Plover,
Wis., one of the officers who fired at image on the screen. "You can make
mistakes and not get hurt, whereas in real life, you make a mistake and
you get sued or hurt or killed."
The range, known as a Cinetronic Firing Range, opened in 1992 and was
enhanced three years ago to become interactive.
Only a handful of police training labs in the country have trainees
firing live rounds at the video image of actors performing live, said
Patrick Judge, manager of the International Association of Law Enforcement
Standards and Training.
"There is so much grief from improper use of force," he said. "That
is why this technology is so attractive. It for the first time addresses
the use of force in a practice situation."
Bill Galvin, a Green Bay police lieutenant and instructor at the
range, said departments from all over the world have come to see the
high-tech firing range.