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Trump-Related ‘Hostile Crowds’ Prompt Palm Beach Simulator Purchase!

By Ian Cohen

Posted Nov 16, 2018 at 1:54 PM
Updated Nov 16, 2018 at 1:54 PM

The Palm Beach Police Department is using the increasing number of protests in Palm Beach since Donald Trump was elected president as a reason to buy a $200,000 virtual training simulator.

The purchase of the machine (technical name: VirTra 300 Firearms Simulator System) was unanimously approved Tuesday by the Town Council after a short presentation from former Director of Public Safety and current Town Manager Kirk Blouin.

The machine will cost about $210,000, according to a memo Acting Police Chief Nicholas Caristo sent to the council. The department will use a $50,000 grant from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to help pay for the machine. The rest will be paid with donations through the Palm Beach Police Foundation, the memo said.

In the memo, Caristo cited the “many hostile crowds” from protests relating to “President Trump’s election to office” as a reason for the machine’s purchase. He also cited the “increase in violence at schools and places of worship.”

On Tuesday, Blouin told the council the machine will help the police department train its new hires, some of whom have “limited or no police experience.”

“Some of these applicants in front of us have never been in a fist-fight, and we’re gonna put a gun and a weapon in their hand,” Blouin said. “So the only way we can combat that is to train.”

The town has struggled to hire and retain experienced police officers since about 2012, when the council enacted deep pension and benefit cuts to its public safety sector. The town posted openings for police positions on its website during the summer and again posted for full-time officers on Nov. 2.

Related: Palm Beach Police Dept. sees highest turnover in more than a decade

Police officials hope the simulator will help reduce the learning curve for some of their new hires while serving as a skill-sharpening tool for veteran officers.

“It allows you to adapt to stressful environments to make good decisions,” Blouin told the council. “It’s a great simulator for us to allow our police officers to be better trained.”

More Palm Beach Public Safety news

The machine uses five 10-by-7.5-foot interconnected screens to create a “fully immersive ... 300-degree environment,” according to the grant application. The machine will “challenge trainees and prepare them for the types of encounters that law enforcement officers are liable to be required to respond.”

The simulator will provide an “immersive training environment” that features “real-life law enforcement scenarios,” the application said. Police will use the simulator with interactive weapons, including Smith & Wesson handguns and Tasers. The system will also record training sessions for playback during debriefings.

In its grant application to FDLE, the town wrote that the its growing popularity since Trump was elected — paired with the department’s responsibility to protect such landmarks as Worth Avenue, the Henry Flagler Museum and The Breakers — made the department a well-suited candidate for the $50,000 grant and the simulator.

“Obtaining an on-site training environment ... would be an invaluable asset to this department and this community,” the town wrote.

Blouin said he worked at least two years with the Palm Beach Police Foundation to buy the simulator. He said the department is still deciding where in town it will house the machine but is open to sharing it with nearby agencies.

This is the second grant application the police department has submitted in the last week. On Tuesday, the council approved a grant application asking for about $57,000 in federal reimbursement from the Department of Homeland Security. The town is requesting that money to cover the cost of the police department’s overtime budget from Oct. 1, 2017, to Sept. 30 while officers oversaw traffic control and crowd management during Trump visits to Mar-a-Lago and Trump-related protests on the island.
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https://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/20181116/trump-related-hostile-crowds-prompt-palm-beach-police-to-purchase-200k-virtual-training-simulator