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Simulator helps officers make split-second decisions
McCOOK, Neb. — A Red Willow County Sheriff’s deputy office recently responded to call about a noise disturbance.
Once he arrived at the home, a man in sweat pants and T-shirt came out onto the porch, pacing back and forth, swearing at the deputy and demanding, “What do you want?” The deputy repeatedly attempted to calm him down to no avail, when suddenly the man jumped off the porch toward him. The deputy squeezed the trigger of his taser and the man crumples onto the lawn.
The deputy then lowers his taser and steps back. “How did I do?” he asks.
Behind him, Senior Sgt. Kevin Darling with the McCook Police Department looks up from the computer that is manning the life-size simulation screen. “I’m not sure, let’s check it,” he says. Then the screen is filled with the “debriefing,” showing the exact spots where the taser hit the man outlined in red, one in the thigh and another in the waist.
And for the next couple of hours, law enforcement from the McCook Police Department and sheriff’s office go through other real-time scenarios in an immersive simulation, called a Milo range, that changes outcomes for each participant based on what tactic or force is used. There’s a traffic stop where the driver of a pickup gets out and aims his gun at a police officer’s partner as a woman emerges from the passenger side; a woman in the lobby of a police department threatening suicide and suddenly pulling a gun, and a man found hiding behind a tree in a woman’s backyard. After each scenario, a debriefing shows the results of actions made by law enforcement.
In these situations, officers must decide in a split second what to do and what kind of force to use.
Senior Sgt. Kevin Darling has 30 years behind him as a use of force instructor and says the training is invaluable, as these immersive simulations help law enforcement to process volatile situations better than just classroom instruction. Cognitive skills needed for these situations can diminish over time so training with the emotionally-charged scenarios, that change in an instant, keeps law enforcement on their toes, Darling said.
“We have to deal with people every day so we need to be aware of everything, so everyone goes home safe,” he said. Unlike other jobs, a mistake in law enforcement can land an officer dead, fired from their position, or in front of a grand jury. “The ramifications are enormous,” he said.
Darling said he’s seen the loss of respect for law enforcement through the years and coupled with the advent of cell phone video, judgement calls made in a split second by police are subject to a torrent of interpretations by the public. “The time to make those decisions is so short, people just can’t appreciate it unless they experience it,” he said.
In some high-profile cases, the public doesn’t have the full back story behind a video. In some cases, “People don’t know that this is a person you’ve been dealing three days a week for the past 15 years and now he’s a choir boy,” he said.
Although there are some “bad cops,” Darling said for the majority that’s not the case. Still, “You have to justify every trigger pull because in the court of public opinion, you’ll lose credibility.”
The simulation training covers a number of possible scenarios that test officers on their markmanship, crisis intervention and judgement skills. Taser accuracy is tested, along with lethal force and batons. There are traffic stops, domestic disturbances, calls from drinking establishments and active shooter incidents, where in real life, sometimes you’re dealing with kids who’ve played video games for years, Darling said.
He said research found that in one school shooting, the perpetrators, despite never owning a gun before, walked through the halls and aimed at the heads of students with surprising accuracy, due to hour after hour of playing interactive video games where the goal is to shoot as many people as possible.
Darling does a lot of research that includes reading about 40 district court cases a month, relaying his observations to his officers. That’s because the way a judge rules in a case sets a precedent for later scenarios “and that will come down to affect us,” he said.
How things can change in a second are brought vividly to life in the simulations, such as one scene where a man ignores commands to stop and continues to rush forward. Darling said police training has shown that at 21 feet, a person can get to police officers before they have time to pull a gun, so anything less than that puts the officer in a bad situation, especially if they don’t know if the person has a weapon or not.
And these situations play out daily, whether it’s in a large city or smaller agencies like McCook. If the person is on meth or other drugs, or refuses to obey commands, it becomes even more dangerous.
That’s when officers can get tunnel vision with the adrenal pumping and the “fight or flight” response kicking in, and why the simulation training is vital, Darling said.
Despite the inherent dangers in his career, Darling will celebrate 33 years in law enforcement on Dec. 1. And he must have set a good example, because he and his wife, Tami, have a son working as a police officer in Commerce City, Colo.
“And he’s better than I am,” Darling said.