Cutting-Edge Interactive Police Training System Transforms Barney Fife Into Robocop
Submitted by MichaelVail on Tue, 02/13/2007 - 8:55pm.
TCpalm
Posted: Feb 13, 2007
PORT ST. LUCIE — The officer went to the school for an assault report, where he learned a man with a baseball bat was on campus.
He notified dispatchers moments before violent screams echoed through the halls.
And then, into view came a man, who yanked a woman onto a table and started beating her.
"Drop the bat! Drop the bat!" the officer shouted, but the man didn't.
Three shots later, the man was down.
Such violent confrontations aren't exactly common for Port St. Lucie police, but a high-tech and highly realistic training system that puts officers in those scenarios could help prepare them for the day they actually happen.
"It gives them some insight as to how they would perform so if they do encounter it in the real world they know how to react," Officer James Olson said.
The MILO equipment, bought last year for about $50,300, is a computer-based, interactive system that allows officers to react to a variety of scenarios shown on a large screen using laser-activated weapons and verbal commands.
Reaction times can be measured and the precise spots where the weapons, such as guns and pepper spray, hit are recorded. While a scenario is unfolding, it can be changed so officers don't see the same video each time.
"Usually, there's two to three endings for every video," Olson said. "If they're doing really well and I want to challenge them, I can escalate it and make it a harder scenario."
Officer Mitch Miller went through the training one recent afternoon at the department's western station on Rosser Boulevard.
"It was definitely nerve-wrecking," he said. "They talk about getting tunnel vision and your hearing goes, and you do experience some of that."
Tunnel vision, which can be caused by distress or fear, is the loss of peripheral vision.
Officer Al Corona, a former SWAT team member, described the system as "probably the most realistic, scenario-based training you can get."
Posted: Feb 13, 2007
PORT ST. LUCIE — The officer went to the school for an assault report, where he learned a man with a baseball bat was on campus.
He notified dispatchers moments before violent screams echoed through the halls.
And then, into view came a man, who yanked a woman onto a table and started beating her.
"Drop the bat! Drop the bat!" the officer shouted, but the man didn't.
Three shots later, the man was down.
Such violent confrontations aren't exactly common for Port St. Lucie police, but a high-tech and highly realistic training system that puts officers in those scenarios could help prepare them for the day they actually happen.
"It gives them some insight as to how they would perform so if they do encounter it in the real world they know how to react," Officer James Olson said.
The MILO equipment, bought last year for about $50,300, is a computer-based, interactive system that allows officers to react to a variety of scenarios shown on a large screen using laser-activated weapons and verbal commands.
Reaction times can be measured and the precise spots where the weapons, such as guns and pepper spray, hit are recorded. While a scenario is unfolding, it can be changed so officers don't see the same video each time.
"Usually, there's two to three endings for every video," Olson said. "If they're doing really well and I want to challenge them, I can escalate it and make it a harder scenario."
Officer Mitch Miller went through the training one recent afternoon at the department's western station on Rosser Boulevard.
"It was definitely nerve-wrecking," he said. "They talk about getting tunnel vision and your hearing goes, and you do experience some of that."
Tunnel vision, which can be caused by distress or fear, is the loss of peripheral vision.
Officer Al Corona, a former SWAT team member, described the system as "probably the most realistic, scenario-based training you can get."
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