Mason City, IA- A new piece of equipment at a North Iowa college is helping area police officers become better prepared for intense situations.
Kaplan University bought firearm training simulators for all of its campuses in Iowa. The $50,000 piece of equipment is available for any North Iowa law enforcement agency to use free of charge. All they have to do is reserve the time.
The training is a big help for small town departments facing shrinking budgets.
Before about two weeks ago, similar training wasn't feasible for Manly's Police Department.
"It's a great tool, it's a great training device for law enforcement to have in your back yard is even better," said Manly Police Chief James O'Keefe.
O’Keefe says the firearms training simulator forces officers to make quick decisions in more than 200 pretty intense situations. The gun used is police issued and fits in their standard holster. Gas power gives it realistic action.
"You have multiple scenarios you have multiple different ways you can make the scenario kind of play out which gives that officer kind of training where they have to think about their responses and what they need to say and how to act," O’Keefe said.
In today's tough economy money budgeted for law enforcement in town's like Manly is becoming scarce. So the training is priceless.
"When Training dollars get cut it's hard to find good training and again to have this in your back yard where you're looking at high dollar training where you can utilize it as often as you want to it's fantastic," he said.
O’Keefe talked me into strapping on the holster. In my scenario my partner and I pull over a man with warrants. The suspect gets control of my partner’s gun during the arrest, and I am forced to shoot.
O’Keefe says the best part is nobody gets hurt, and the training officer can talk about the situation afterwards.
"The officer needs to articulate after the scenarios are over what level of force they used, whether the suspect or individual complied why they complied and was it because the officer gave the appropriate commands and that's great," he said.
O’Keefe says the nearest training simulator like the one Kaplan now has is in Des Moines. Otherwise they would have to use actors, and the set up alone could take days.
He hopes to use it about three times a year.
Kaplan contacted agencies around the area to let them know the simulator is available. Clear Lake plans on sending officers over to train in the simulator soon.
