drool.... I just played the sweetest video game. Actually, it wasn't a game. It was some a computer-based deadly force simulator. You're in a room with a projector, watching a scenario play out. You make a traffic stop, and the car pulls into a store parking lot. You approach the driver's window and the guy is irate. "This is bullsh*t. Stupid pig."

The passenger reaches for something... will he grab his wallet, itching his rear end? He's got a gun.

Drop the gun! Put your hands up! If you don't put your hands up I will view that as a threat and will be forced to shoot!

bangbangbangbangbang

I got him, he didn't get me

Now that was fun.

I missed the Taser a couple of weeks ago :( But this made up for it. Plus we used simunitions -- simulation ammunition. Real live exercise, with real guns (modified of course) that shoot what are basically rubber bullets, with some paint inside. Kind of like paintball, but with real guns. That was cool too. I got shot in the arm, but didn't really feel it, but now that I look at it, it did leave a mark.

I'll miss next Thursday. That'll be K9 and SWAT tactics. Dang. But the week after I get to do pursuit driving!

Woohoo! This community police academy has been a blast. We even covered the physiology and psychology of deadly force situations, and how that dictates training, and how police don't really shoot at paper targets so much anymore. They do, but that's just for accuracy and to get real-gun experience. The simunitions and computer scenarios though get the heart beating thumpthump-bu-da-thump and having to talk to people and decide when to shoot.

Even during shooting simulations, many of the scenarios play out with no reason to draw a gun. That's intentional. Police rarely have to draw or shoot, and training reflects that too. But that one time they have to... they'd better be ready.