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.

    About 1,000 officers from across Wisconsin receive training at the
range every year, with each shooting about 400 rounds of ammunition, said
coordinator Jodi Wilson. It's one of about 15 Wisconsin sites that offer
virtual reality training for police.
    There is evidence that the high-tech training is helping officers,
Galvin said. In the years since interactive training came into use, Green
Bay police have received fewer complaints of officers using excessive
force, and fewer officers have been injured on the job, he said.
    Wierzba, 40, said being able to verbally communicate with an
assailant makes the training feel like real life.
    "You learn to calm your own emotions as much as you can because your
blood pressure does go up," he said.
    Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton offers its own version of
the shooting range, but without the use of live ammunition or actors. The
training system features five video screens and "270 degrees of reality,"
trainer Kirk Schneider said.
    Officers going through the training are confronted with scenarios
produced by six computers, which shoot plastic marbles at officers when
one of the "bad guys" in the scenarios shoots, Schneider says.
    Officers hit by the projectiles sometimes suffer slight bruising.
    "Talk about real training," Schneider said. "We make sure these
officers learn how to move to cover."
   
- - - -
    On the Net:
    Northeast Wisconsin Technical College:
http://www.nwtconline.com/Programs.nsf
    International Association of Law Enforcement Standards and Training:
http://www.iadlest.org

Copyright 2001 Los Angeles Times

Huh.  This one didn't make much headway in the local news...

Mike

Yep, every so often one of these things do slip past you, and you have to read about it from a newspaper in Los Angeles.  Your local paper is falling down on the job.

I am not in law-enforcement, but I did get a chance to try a simulator with a LASERed Baretta 92F at a law-enforcement convention with my buddy.  Those simulators are pretty tough!  Things happen in a blink of an eye, and you have decide whether to shoot/don't shoot in a split second.  But the recoil/blast was was missing.  This simulator uses real live ammo.  Wisconsin is fortunate to have one of these machines.  Your tax money is being wisely spent.

Hmm.  One good point, especially considering where most of our tax money goes up here...

Mike