|
|
|
Flora, Ill. —
Flora Police invited local media out to the Flora High School field house Tuesday afternoon to see and experience FATS or Firearm Automated Training Simulator.
When we enter the room, we see that physically, FATS is a very large screen upon which images are projected from a black box, which the trainer, in this case, FPD Officer Guy Durre, controls from a laptop computer.
Chief John Nicholson explains to us that while FATS lets an officer know if they hit or miss the target, this $100,000 training system isn’t about marksmanship, but about judgement.
“We struggle sometimes to do judgmental training,” said Nicholson. “You teach anybody to shoot an “X” on a target, but training them on when to shoot the “X” is probably the hardest thing to do.”
The training FPD officers get on this encompasses many of the facets of their job when out in the field. Not only do they have to use their firearms (The bullets are replaced by Lasers in the simulation), but less lethal weapons like TASERs and Mace as well.
In addition to use of force, the officers need to get communications right between themselves and the subject, with their instructor and possibly, their superiors, looking on.
The instructor keeps things interesting too. With the way FATS is set up, just because a scenario goes one way one time, doesn’t mean it will again. Using a “Branching” system, the instructor can throw a nearly unlimited amount of different events at the officers, all on a moment’s notice.
The scenarios the Police showed Tuesday included traffic stop where a man approached brandishing a knife. The officers attempted to TASER him, but the TASER malfunctioned (Another way instructors can change things up) and they were forced to escalate to lethal force instead.
In another situation, the simulation had the officers investigating a man seen with a gun in his belt in a convenience store. This one came to a peaceful resolution when, under the cover of the officers’ firearms, he slowly reached into his pocket and showed them his own badge.
Flora Police get use the training system twice a year: it makes its way all around southern Illinois. Because of the Department’s participation and dues in a Police training organization, the use of the system is free.
The other reason the FPD gets the use of the system is that they have their own certified instructor, Durre, to utilize it. It’s essentially just dropped off in Flora for two weeks.
Flora Police invited local media out to the Flora High School field house Tuesday afternoon to see and experience FATS or Firearm Automated Training Simulator.
When we enter the room, we see that physically, FATS is a very large screen upon which images are projected from a black box, which the trainer, in this case, FPD Officer Guy Durre, controls from a laptop computer.
Chief John Nicholson explains to us that while FATS lets an officer know if they hit or miss the target, this $100,000 training system isn’t about marksmanship, but about judgement.
“We struggle sometimes to do judgmental training,” said Nicholson. “You teach anybody to shoot an “X” on a target, but training them on when to shoot the “X” is probably the hardest thing to do.”
The training FPD officers get on this encompasses many of the facets of their job when out in the field. Not only do they have to use their firearms (The bullets are replaced by Lasers in the simulation), but less lethal weapons like TASERs and Mace as well.
In addition to use of force, the officers need to get communications right between themselves and the subject, with their instructor and possibly, their superiors, looking on.
The instructor keeps things interesting too. With the way FATS is set up, just because a scenario goes one way one time, doesn’t mean it will again. Using a “Branching” system, the instructor can throw a nearly unlimited amount of different events at the officers, all on a moment’s notice.
The scenarios the Police showed Tuesday included traffic stop where a man approached brandishing a knife. The officers attempted to TASER him, but the TASER malfunctioned (Another way instructors can change things up) and they were forced to escalate to lethal force instead.
In another situation, the simulation had the officers investigating a man seen with a gun in his belt in a convenience store. This one came to a peaceful resolution when, under the cover of the officers’ firearms, he slowly reached into his pocket and showed them his own badge.
Flora Police get use the training system twice a year: it makes its way all around southern Illinois. Because of the Department’s participation and dues in a Police training organization, the use of the system is free.
The other reason the FPD gets the use of the system is that they have their own certified instructor, Durre, to utilize it. It’s essentially just dropped off in Flora for two weeks.
