By RYAN LANCASTER
Staff Reporter
Airway Heights Police detective Kelly Justice moves swiftly along a school hallway, his shotgun at the ready. Rounding a corner he sees an obviously disturbed man standing over the bodies of two kids, a gun to his own head.
Justice rapidly orders him to drop the weapon but the man doesn't budge, yelling “I can't take it anymore,” as the veteran officer fires two rounds into his chest.
Setting his shotgun down onto a nearby table, Justice explains. “The reason he's going to go, we've got two kids laying down there bleeding out and he's not going to comply,” he says. “The unfortunate part is we can't play games with him when we need to eliminate the threat and get to the kids.”
Fortunately this isn't a real-life scenario, but it isn't a video game either. It's Laser Shot, a virtual weapons training system the Airway Heights Police Department began using last month as a way to save money and better prepare the force's 13 officers for whatever they might face in the line of duty.
“I'll be honest, it's hard. My heart's pounding already,” Justice says.
The Airway Heights City Council approved the system's purchase for about $23,000 in February and it was installed in late March. A representative of the Texas-based Laser Shot, Inc. said the company has sold 15 “Tactical Weapons Simulators” to military, law enforcement and other public safety professionals in Washington and 1,400 nationwide.
The city selected a laser based system that utilizes replica firearms, some noticeably imitation and others made to look and feel like the real thing – complete with a compressed-air kickback with each pull of the trigger. A laser-sensitive projector screen places officers into the middle of some heavy situations involving domestic violence, suspicious persons, emotionally disturbed individuals and active shooters. The system also offers a range of targets, decision making drills and other shooting maneuvers that can be run through individually or as a team.
There are some drawbacks to using the virtual system instead of live-fire training. Trainees don't get to practice actual weapons manipulations such as malfunction clearing and reloading, nor do they experience the loud noises associated with live gunfire. The room the system is installed in allows a limited range of movement and excludes environmental conditions from the mix, such as inclement weather or the flashing lights of a squad car.
But Airway Heights Sgt. Bob Swan said unlike traditional firing range training the Laser Shot system allows officers to practice a variety of techniques in realistic situations safely, and with less wear and tear on field equipment. He added that with expected ammunition and overtime savings the system should pay for itself within a few years.
“Usually we have to schedule range time, but this way we can do it anytime with a few officers on shift rather than having to pay overtime for everybody in the department,” Swan said. “The live range, we qualify once every six months. Bullets are expensive, overtime is expensive, and with the budget these days you can only shoot so many times a year.”
Along with marksmanship and tactical skills, officers have the chance to practice voice commands and interviewing techniques. Swan said a trainer can hit a key on a command console that causes the onscreen suspect to either comply with or ignore the trainee's commands, meaning that just like in real life, the officer never knows what's going to happen.
“If he's not giving the right voice commands, I'm not going to have him comply. But then again, if you do give the right voice commands sometimes it doesn't matter,” Swan said.
The department is still in the process of devising a monthly training program with the new system, but Swan said so far everyone has gotten a lot out of it.
“It does get very stressful but it's a good tool,” Swan said. “I think the most important thing is to take it seriously. You don't play around on it; those are some serous situations.”
Ryan Lancaster can be reached at [email protected].
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