| Law Enforcement Uses F.A.T.S. for Training |
| 9/6/2005 |
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Shouts from the Wapakoneta City Administration Building's basement echoed up into the main corridor this week as law enforcement officers from across the county tested their skills in the University of Findlay's Firearms Training System (FATS).
The computer-run system projects possible scenarios on a movie screen, and police officers aim real weapons modified to fire beams of light at characters on-screen. The officers' words and actions can change the scenarios' outcomes, Mike Webber, an adjunct instructor from The University of Findlay, told the Wapakoneta Daily News this week as he began a scenario in which a suicidal man was waving a gun outside a factory loading dock. "I'm going to put my gun right on him, I'm going to be telling him 'We'll get you help. Put the gun down, put the gun down now,'" Webber said as he raised the handgun he was holding and pointed at the man on the screen. "If the officer would tell this guy, 'You don't have the guts to commit suicide,' I have him commit suicide. That's not what you want to do." The retired Ohio State Highway Patrol post commander joined the University's School of Environmental and Emergency Management - Center for Terrorism Preparedness two years ago, when the school purchased the training system. The manufacturer provided the first scenarios on DVD, but Webber is also able to create new ones based on real life situations. One scenario - in which an officer stops a man for a traffic violation and the man begins yelling, then pulls a rifle out of the back of his truck and shoots at the officer - is a near replica of a fatal traffic stop near Dublin, Ga., in January 1998. Laurens County (Ga.) Deputy Kyle Dinkheller's patrol car video camera captured the stop and Dinkheller's death, and Webber played a copy of the video. "My whole point in showing that is the importance of training officers to protect the officers and other people's lives," Webber said at the end of the video. Several law enforcement officers watched the video, standing quietly as Dinkheller's screams could be heard from off camera. Another scene spurred a Coshocton County Sheriff's deputy to fire at a suspect in a double shooting, Webber said. Webber trained the deputy in February 2004; a month later, an 18-year-old fatally wounded his uncle and also wounded his grandmother, then engaged four deputies in a shootout. "The chief deputy comes on the scene, the kid did not see the chief deputy, he had the drop on him, and he made the correct decision, took three shots, put it in the kid's chest, put him in critical condition," Webber said. "The kid ended up living and now he's serving a life sentence for murdering his uncle." The chief deputy later called Webber to say that it was a similar scenario in training, in which a downed officer loses his gun to a suspect, that prompted him to shoot without identifying himself, which officers typically do before using their weapons. "In this situation, we felt this was an exception," Webber said, referring to the "officer down" scenario. "If I wait too long, tell him 'I'm a police officer, put the gun down,' I don't take the shot, he shoots the officer. When the officer that I was telling you about went through that, he yelled, 'Deputy sheriff, put the gun down, put the gun down.' The (downed) officer got shot. When he was in the actual scenario, he said he remembered our scenario and didn't want to make that mistake again." Auglaize County participated in a two-day "Shoot/Don't Shoot" training last spring, and Sheriff Al Solomon and Chief Deputy Mike Eberle asked the county police chiefs if they would pool their resources to bring in the week-long program. Participating law enforcement officers spent about an hour apiece in the program. Police Chief Dave Webb said the program does a good job of making the officers think on their feet. "In this line of work, you tend to get complacent about things," Webb said after completing a training session. "You always need to be cognizant of the fact that things could go bad." The high-stress situations help the officers see how they might respond in actual confrontations. Shouting at suspects, handling the guns and shooting as a mounted gun discharges foam pellets at the officers raises their adrenaline and forces them to focus on what they're doing, Webb said. "Under stressful situation, it's very interesting to see how bad your aim can be," the police chief said. "It's fun, it's challenging, it's stressful. Basically, it just keeps us alert to our surroundings." Webber said he hopes officers remember those physical responses long after the training is done. "It works because it's based on the premise that you're going to behave in a real situation according to how you prepare for that situation, just like in life," the retired state trooper said. "In athletics, you're going to play as well as you practice. The same principle is in this. By creating stressful situations, hopefully they're going to revert back to that training." By ERIN MILLER Staff Writer, Wapakoneta Daily News |
