Posted: 9-16-2005
New simulator brings realism into police training
By JOE BOOMGAARD
Daily News Staff Writer
Imagine seeing a man with his back turned working on a van. As a police officer dispatched to the scene, one doesn’t know if the man is trying to fix the vehicle or steal it, whether he’s armed or not, or if he is alone or with other people. An officer’s job is to assess the situation and make a decision about how to proceed with the subject.
“Sir, can I see your hands?” said Daniel Rosa, the standards development specialist for the Michigan Commission On Law Enforcement Standards (MCOLES).
The subject turned irate, shouting at Rosa: “I’m just here fixing this thing man. Call Bill down at the city.
“Leave me alone! I’m just trying to fix this f---ing thing.”
Rosa continued to attempt to gain control of the situation.
“Sir, calm down, just stay right there and let me see your hands.”
All of a sudden, another subject rushed around from behind the van aiming a shotgun at Rosa. With one shot from his .45-caliber SigSaur pistol, Rosa neutralized the subject.
“I really like this thing,” Rosa said as Little River Public Safety Officer Tim LeGault turned the lights back on in the Three Fires conference room in the Little River Casino and Resort.
The thing Rosa was referring to was VirTra, a new virtual reality training simulator that helps to train officers in how to handle diverse situations they might encounter in the field.
The Little River Band of Ottawa Indians’ Department of Public Safety, headed by director Joe LaPorte, recently purchased a VirTra unit using a government grant for Native American law enforcement. The unit cost approximately $125,000.
LaPorte arranged for MCOLES to test the simulator, the only one of its kind in the state. This was the MCOLES delegation’s first time experiencing VirTra technology.
MCOLES set the standards for selection, employment, licensing, revocation, and funding in both public and private law enforcement in Michigan.
VirTra is a 180-degree, three-screen system designed to mimic the sight path of peripheral vision. A virtual reality scenario is projected on the screen, and the operator can customize the action in the scene depending on how well the user is reacting to the scenario.
In one of the scenarios Rosa tried, he was responding solo to a heated domestic argument involving a total of four subjects who spoke little English. They were in groups of two on opposite sides of a yard. LeGault escalated the situation, and none of the subjects responded to Rosa’s commands. Then one of them pulled a gun and began firing at Rosa. He was trying to watch both of the groups at once, and did neutralize the subject, but not before getting hit himself.
“It just goes to show you that two officers can take on the world, but one can’t even watch his own back,” he said.
The scenarios are designed to train officers in communication and awareness skills as well as to test their tactical abilities and reactions. The program gives officers their choice of lethal and non-lethal force, and the goal of the situation is not always to neutralize the subject by shooting him.
“As the technology advances, we get closer and closer to reality,” Rosa said. “What a system like this does is take reality and bring it into a training environment.
“We love technology — it’s a key to the success of our training.”
Officers are able to use real firearms fitted with a CO2 cartridge that recoil when fired at the screen. Weapons on hand for the demonstration were an M-4 assault rifle, 12-gauge shotgun, .45-caliber pistol and pepper spray. The simulator, which also features a premium surround sound system, also uses real-life sounds at real-life volumes.
The operator can escalate the noises in the simulation to make things difficult to hear and can change the demeanor of the subjects officers are supposed to apprehend. LeGault can choose from an array of distractions to add to the scenario to see how the trainee will react when under pressure.
“We challenge the officers to make a decision,” LeGault said.
LeGault, who was trained by the company in a three-day tutorial session, can also deliver an electric shock to the user via a shock belt if the user is not performing correctly. LeGault can just zap the trainee or can deliver a short, but stunning jolt of 80,000 volts — more voltage than a taser, but in a shorter duration — enough to knock down the person. He said that he doesn’t often use the jolt, but does give trainees a short zap if they’ve been shot or if he needs to get their attention.
“Some of them get so into it that I’ll zap them and they won’t even feel it — they just keep on going,” LeGault said. The electrical shock is localized and goes no deeper than the skin, but the adrenaline gets to the trainees, he said.
Others are very hesitant to wear the belt because they don’t want to be shocked, LeGault said.
Rosa tested out the short zap, and said it didn’t feel too bad. But he didn’t go for the jolt.
The MCOLES representatives said that they thought the system was a great training tool.
The law enforcement academies across the state use several forms of training simulators, including FireArms Training Systems (FATS), Range 3000, and Prism, but most of those use one-screen presentations and aren’t as easily customized, Rosa said. “This has a more realistic panoramic view that you don’t get on one screen,” he said.
Adding reality to the training of law enforcement officers is important, Rosa said, because it connects the classroom learning to the range training.
“What matters is being able to perform on the job,” Rosa said. “We want officers to perform properly when a situation shows up in real life. Even though everything happens at once in real-life, officers might remember how they handled a similar situation in training.”
“The benefits of these simulators are in the decision-making process,” said Mason County Sheriff Laude Hartrum, who had not used the VirTra system, but was familiar with the Range simulator. “You can teach accuracy on them, but they’re really to help make good decisions.”
MCOLES is responsible for the training of all law enforcement officers in the state. As the governing body, MCOLES mandates that officers have a minimum of 562 hours of training in a variety of fields including ethics, communication, safety skills and law.
Accompanying Rosa on the visit were MCOLES field representatives Patrick Hutting and Margaret Edwards. All three tried the simulator, and all three said that they were impressed, but that the cost of purchasing the unit would likely be a barrier for any of the academies in the state to getting one any time soon.
“It’s just too expensive for most academies,” Hutting said. “Most of the current simulators in use are the result of several agencies partnering up. They’re all high-cost items.”
And that’s where the Little River Band’s Department of Public Safety comes into play. As with the tribe’s other law enforcement resources, LaPorte said that VirTra Simulator has been offered for the use of local and state law enforcement entities. The offer comes at no cost to the agencies.
Thus far, the Michigan State Police, the Mason and Manistee County Sheriff’s Offices, local corrections officers and several other local law enforcement agencies have tested the simulator, according to Glenn Zaring, Public Information Director for the tribe.
“I’m pleased that we can make this training available to our fellow law enforcement departments,” said LaPorte. “It’s training that will save lives and improve decision-making skills of all officers who through the program.
“This means a safer environment for citizens and officers alike.”
jboomgaard@ludingtondailynews.com
843-1122, ext. 309
