SIDNEY — What would you do if?
A person is breaking into a house and is armed with a knife?
You observe two people fighting and one of them has a gun?
A routine traffic stop leads to the driver showing a gun?
These are a few of the scenarios faced by police officers around the world on a daily basis. During their work shifts this week, members of the Sidney Police Department received extra training via a video simulator which has hundreds of scenarios dealing with situations officers could possibly face.
“We’re required to do more training in the state dealing with the use of force,” said Chief Will Balling. “We’re constantly talking about situations where you shoot or don’t shot. Officers are taught verbal commands to help avoid shooting someone.
“All of our officers have tasers,” he said. “We have extra tasers if a detective goes out on the road. We just want to stop anyone from getting hurt.”
Sgt Josh Divens, who is in charge of the range staff for the department, is also certified to use the simulator for a training tool.
“It’s interesting to watch the officers go through the training,” said Divens. “They know what a threat is. I’ve been putting our guys through all scenarios possible.”
Each officer, said Divens, has attended two different training sessions. They do 10 to 12 scenarios during each session.
“The simulator has around 500 different scenarios,” said Divens. A retired Ohio Highway Patrol trooper started the business, which allows departments throughout the state use the system for training.
After each scenario, Divens and the officer will review what happened and how the situation was handled.
“One-third of the training is about verbal training,” said Divens.
“It’s a matter of action vs reaction,” said Balling.
A group of Fairlawn students were able to experience what it’s like to make those split second decisions when they each took a turn with the simulator. The sociology class, taught by Katrina Maxson, was visiting the police department and Balling invited them to be part of the training.
“We are studying a unit on deviants and looking at the criminal justice system,” said Maxson. “We are visiting the police department, the county jail and the court system.”
Some junior and senior students, said Maxson, were hesitant about doing the exercise.
“Some of them have shot guns with their parents,” said Maxson. “Some had never handled a hand gun so they were a little nervous.”
Maxson asked Balling how the department handles an officer-involved shooting.
“The officer is debriefed after the shooting,” said Balling. “One of our officers, Mike McRill, is part of a special response team that goes to other departments to help them deal with a situation like this or another emergency situation. If something happens that involves a Sidney officer, I would call in another department for debriefing.”
Balling said several court bailiffs, members of Sidney City Council and members of the public have participated in the training.
“We have tasers, rifles and handguns which can be used in the training,” said Balling.
“The training ,” said Divens, “gets the officer’s minds to do the right thing under stress. When we train with the simulation scenarios, we are learning as we train.”
Balling stressed that, if a citizen is facing an emergency, they should call 911 and get themselves out of the dangerous situation.
