COLUMBUS – The sights, sounds and smells of a confrontation with potentially dangerous suspects – even the sensation of being wounded – are all part of a new $1.4 million training simulator for Ohio law enforcement officers.
The immersive training facility at the Ohio Peace Officers Training Academy in London will ultimately include as many as eight buildings, according to Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, who unveiled the facility Tuesday as state officials work to improve law enforcement training in Ohio in the wake of controversial police-involved shootings in several states, including Ohio.
“We want the intensive, hands-on training to enable officers to react quickly and appropriately, maintain their on-the-job safety, and make decisions with the best possible outcomes while protecting the public,” he said.
The first phase of the facility, which is expected to be completed by the end of the year, includes a maintenance garage repurposed to house a three-screen, 180-degree Multiple Interactive Learning Objective Theatre Firearm Simulator from Ann Arbor-based MILO Range.
Officers respond to scenarios where a threat could appear anywhere in the officers’ field of vision, testing their situational awareness as they determine when to use lethal or non-lethal force. A scent generator can produce scents that officers may encounter at a scene, such as the smell of gunpowder at the scene of an active shooter, according to information released by DeWine’s office.
An academy office building has been transformed into a three-room “shoothouse” containing four single-screen firearm simulators that can present officers with nearly 500 different scenarios, including live role players who may try to distract officers or even attack them as they try to de-escalate a volatile situation unfolding on a simulator.
The main room is equipped with matted floors and walls so that officers can safely practice take-down and arrest skills.
Officers can wear heart-rate monitors to measure how they physically and mentally respond to stressful situations in the training village. Sensory devices can also be worn to painlessly simulate a gunshot wound that renders a limb unusable.
The second phase (pictured above) includes a “loft apartment” with a single-screen firearm simulator and an exterior staircase.
Several buildings are planned that will be constructed from shipping containers with movable and reconfigurable walls so that officers can practice responding to different building layouts. At least one of these structures will be two stories to help officers train on responding to incidents in buildings with multiple floors and interior stairwells.
The training village was a recommendation from DeWine’s Advisory Group on Law Enforcement Training, formed in 2014 to study law enforcement training and suggest improvements.