New training simulator educates officer, public on use of force
A new training simulator in Cathedral City is helping officers train in escalation and de-escalation tactics, and educating the public on police use of force.
A domestic disturbance is occurring at a home, one of the most dangerous calls for a police officer to respond to and is one of the scenarios presented in a new training simulator for Cathedral City Police.
“They’re real life. You’re hearing a lot of language that you’re typically going to hear during these scenarios but it’s preparing them mentally for that challenge,” Police Chief Travis Walker, said.
A challenge that requires split-second decision making, something NewsChannel 3’s/CBS Local 2’s Jeremy Chen was unable to do, as anxiety and nerves created indecision, resulting in death.
“These are split-second decisions that are made that are often times, we don’t have the luxury of Monday morning quarterbacking, what the officers did or didn’t do during that time,” Chief Walker said.
The simulator is meant to train officers placing them in real-life scenarios where they utilize their escalation and de-escalation tactics with lethal and non-lethal options. Officers are given actual weapons modified to shoot lasers to make it realistic in setting that can be changed to fit unorthodox situations.
{“url”:”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ/status/999425474739691521″,”author_name”:”Jeremy Chen”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;This morning I went through a new training simulator with &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/CathedralCityPD?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;@CathedralCityPD&#lt;/a&#gt; that went through various scenarios of calls officers respond to. It was an eye-opening experience with &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/CCPDWALKER?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;@CCPDWALKER&#lt;/a&#gt; regarding use of force 1st-hand. Full story tonight on &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/KESQ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;@KESQ&#lt;/a&#gt; and &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/LocalTwo?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;@LocalTwo&#lt;/a&#gt;. &#lt;a href=”https://t.co/m0CbH7mbZH”&#gt;pic.twitter.com/m0CbH7mbZH&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;– Jeremy Chen (@JeremyChenKESQ) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/JeremyChenKESQ/status/999425474739691521?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;May 23, 2018&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}
“It gives us an opportunity to let them see the challenges that they’re going to have with the equipment that they have, they way their gun belts are configured,” Chief Walker said.
A number of community members also have gone through the simulator, with the same nerves Chen went through with less than ideal results at the end of the scenario.
“The most common response was, we have a newfound appreciation for what you guys have to do, the decision you have to make and how quickly you have to make those decisions,” Walker said.
Decisions, officers will continue to make in order to keep the community safe.
