G’dale officers take part in virtual training

Published 11:07 am Tuesday, August 18, 2009

By Adam Smith

The North Jefferson News



Police officers across the nation respond to a variety of different emergency calls on a daily basis.

Some calls are simple; others are dangerous.

Officers in Gardendale this week are learning more about how to differentiate between the two using a virtual training system known as F.A.T.S. (Fire Arms Training Simulator).

The system is on loan to the department from the Alabama Municipal Insurance Corporation through Aug. 21 at no cost to the city. The department is making use of a dark, empty meeting space near Moncrief Park to conduct the training.

“The F.A.T.S. system is state of the art and adds more realistic scenarios and force options for our officers,” said Gardendale Police Chief Mike Walker. “Additional training better prepares our officers to make the right decisions on the street and consequently reduce liability.”

The system employs a projection screen and a computer which plays vignettes. Officers take an active role in the scenes, giving verbal commands and then choosing whatever weapon or tactic the situation calls for.

Officers are equipped with virtual sidearms like pepper spray, a taser and a handgun that fires bursts of air, as opposed to live ammunition.

One segment of the virtual training forces officers to think fast to recognize differing threat levels. A series of three pictures pop up onto the screen at varying speeds. Some of the photos feature armed assailants while others picture cooperative subjects with raised hands.

The officer has to fire a weapon at the suspects in the order of which is considered the most dangerous, with the exception of the cooperative civilians.

Some of the more detailed scenarios that officers demonstrated this week included traffic stops with a potentially deadly twist. Another scenario involved a school shooting and hostage situation.

A trickier vignette deals with an officer’s response to a burglary. Upon arrival, the officer is faced with a gun-toting grandmother, forcing the officer to draw his gun. During the scene, she points her weapon at the officer and opens fire. Even worse, there’s a crying baby heard in the background.

“This is a perfect example of the variety of cases that officers face,” said Gardendale Police Sgt. Jerry Suggs. “We obviously don’t want to kill a grandma, but in this situation, you have to fire your weapon.”

Gardendale Police field training officer Cpl. Cliff Davis said there are as many as 200 job-specific scenarios with the system that cover everything from state police to jail workers.

All of the city’s officers will participate in the training. Suggs said the training helps them become more versatile.

“It re-enforces knowledge on how to deal with situations that change rapidly,” he said. “It’s all about decision making.”