On the Job 

The first phase of a law enforcement training village, complete with simulators and live role players, was unveiled by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine on May 9 and is now open to officers who take courses at the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy (OPOTA) in London.

The village will ultimately include up to eight buildings and incorporate existing and new structures on the campus. It is being created in response to the recommendations of a citizen advisory group convened by Attorney General DeWine in 2014 to look at peace officer training in the wake of several officer-involved shootings. The group recommended the addition of scenario-based training to ensure that officers can respond appropriately to situations they might face.

“Officers throughout the state of Ohio face danger every single day,” DeWine said. “This new training village will help better prepare them for what they may encounter while on duty.”

DeWine, who has long been a proponent of scenario-based training, said that officers facing stressful situations on the streets instinctively think back on earlier experiences for guidance.

“Officers must make life or death decisions in a matter of moments,” he said. “In this training village, officers can be immersed in realistic, but controlled, environments where they can experience these scenarios. They will be guided by skilled instructors who can show them what they did right as well as what they could have done better. When faced with a similar encounter while on duty, the hope is that the officers can refer back to the training they have received.”

For the first phase of the training village, an existing maintenance garage was converted into a home for an interactive simulation use-of-force training system called the MILO Range Theater 180. It uses surround sound and three high-definition projectors to illuminate a three-part wraparound screen to bring training scenarios to life. The scenarios can even involve a cruiser, which the trainee can drive into the building and up to the screen.

The instructor controls the scenarios with a computer while a motion sensor and camera track the movement of the trainee, who is armed with laser weapons — including realistic-feeling handguns, pepper spray, stun guns, and flashlights. The trainee works through scenarios involving situations such as domestic disturbances, traffic stops, break-ins, and school threats. Sounds and smells can even be introduced to increase the realism. Instructors can monitor the trainee’s stress level with biometric sensors.

Next door, an office building has been converted into a “shoothouse.” Mats cover the walls and floors to allow for the projection of a scenario from two other MILO simulators and interaction or combat with live role players. The instructor watches and works the simulators from inside a control room.

For the next phase of the village project, an existing scenario house is being converted into a loft apartment with a single-screen firearm simulator on the second floor. A staircase is also being added to the exterior of the building to replicate those commonly found on older apartments.

Shipping container buildings, including at least one multilevel configuration, are also being added to create a variety of training spaces with moveable walls. At least one of the structures will be two stories to help officers train on how to respond to incidents in buildings with multiple floors and interior stairwells. The multilevel structure will have a single-screen firearm simulator and an exterior platform.

A park with an obstacle course will complete the village.

The cost of the training village is about $1.4 million. The Ohio General Assembly allocated funds for the village as part of the 2016-17 budget bill. 
 

The 180 simulator

MILO Range training instructor Ian Lauterwasser said the system includes 987 single-screen scenarios, about 70 three-screen scenarios, and about 80 exercises for developing skills. The system also allows OPOTA to create scenarios based on past cases or officer encounters and to use videos from bodycams and elsewhere in the lesson.

“We can rebuild the situation and run everybody in the class through it onscreen,” Lauterwasser said. “OPOTA can go through the archive of case files and find ones that have already gone through court, and we can simulate those onscreen. If we hear a scenario from a student, we can re-create that and put them through it.”

Simulators present officers with various scenarios to allow them to engage in critical decision-making processes regarding use of force. Instructors place an emphasis on proper de-escalation techniques to minimize the need for force. They also provide individualized assessments so students receive valuable feedback and are presented with alternative resolutions where appropriate. At every point of decision, the scenarios offer many possible outcomes that are decided by the trainee’s actions.

“If the officer is not doing what he or she was taught here at OPOTA, the instructor can escalate the situation in the scenario,” Lauterwasser said. “The instructor can say, ‘Based on your stance, or that you reached for your firearm, you escalated the situation. Then you went into a full-on shootout.’ If the officer had done the correct thing, the actor onscreen might have just reached for his ID and not a weapon.”

Some exercises are made for building shooting skills, but instead of spending $30 or $40 on a box of ammunition, trainees are shooting with lasers. The “skill builder” sessions can involve shooting at targets or bad guys. If the trainee shoots a bad guy, the simulator can display an anatomical view to show what organs or bones were hit by the bullet so the instructor can point out during a debriefing session whether the shot would have stopped the threat. A red beam indicates the path of the bullet to make trainees aware that if they fire, they need to be careful of what is in the background.

The shoothouse

The shoothouse is a multiroom building with MILO systems that interact with the 180 simulator and each other to allow for one big storyline with action moving from building to building.

During a class, live role players act as suspects and bystanders.

Joel Seibert, a law enforcement training officer at OPOTA, serves as an instructor and, at times, he puts on protective gear to play a role in a scenario.

“We teach them all week and give them the tools they need to perform in the scenario,” Seibert said. “In the scenario, we might present them with a knife (a shock knife) to see their reaction, or take them down to the ground.”

The padded rooms make it safe to practice maneuvers that involve physical contact with role players.

Throughout the simulation, the instructor watches from a control room. If a trainee needs a reminder to take some type of action, the instructor can push a button to send a buzz of vibration to a device worn by the trainee.