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A woman flees her workplace pleading for a police officer's
assistance. A deranged masked man with an assault rifle is inside. The
officer enters the building and sees the gunman hovering above a
wounded man. Shots are fired. The suspect falls.

That's a scene from a video displaying a 300-degree virtual reality
training simulator that is similar to the one to be bought by the Fond
du Lac County Sheriff's Office. The County Board approved the $275,000
purchase in November.

The V-300, sold by VirTra, Inc., will allow deputies to train in 149
unique scenarios in an immersive virtual training environment, Sheriff
Mick Fink said. Plans are to place the training simulator in a
basement storage area of the county jail.

With the system, the trainee stands in the middle of a 30-foot by
30-foot area circled by several large screens. To the average person,
the training may look like a high-tech version of the Duck Hunt
Nintendo video game, where players use an electronic simulated firearm
to shoot characters on the screen.

But the V-300 is no game. By the end of the simulation, deputies may
be sweating.

"You get dry mouth, you get scared," Fink said.

The system immerses police officers in an array of situations. In a
virtual training scenario, a man on the screen might blindfold a woman
and take her hostage as the trainee attempts to de-escalate the
situation. In another, masked gunmen might be staked inside a building
waiting to ambush. In some scenarios, the officer might have to
account for civilians, who could be harmed as a result of a bad
decision.

At the same time, a person operating the simulator controls a number
of variables. For example, at the click of a button, the computer
operator can manipulate the hostage scenario to make the suspect more
hostile or cooperative.

"You can set it on the computer to escalate, de-escalate, comply,"
Fink said.

Simulator advantages

The computer-generated scenarios are complex and offer unique training
that law enforcement can't receive at conventional firearm ranges
where real guns and ammunition are used, Fink said.

One of the biggest advantages the simulator has compared to actual
firing ranges is its ability to develop soft skills, Fink said.

"The virtual range is something that people who are weaker in
communication skills, weaker in those kinds of things, they can
verbalize their way through those scenarios," Fink said.

It's also less expensive than setting up a physical scenario at a
brick-and-mortar range. "This comes down to money," Fink said. "I
don't see a cheaper solution to put someone in a high-stress
low-frequency situation."

Also, the virtual training won't be impacted by the amount of
ammunition, the weather and time of day as it would on a shooting
range.

Even so, the department is still required to train its deputies in
live gun-firing exercises, which it does about four times a year, Fink
said.

"This isn't a solution for everything. We still need to shoot ammo,"
Fink said.

Investment needed

A hostile situation gone awry can have major implications, Fink said.
It's especially important during an era when law enforcement faces
scrutiny across the nation caused in part by shooting deaths of
African-Americans in major cities.

"I don't need to tell you there is a bigger magnifying glass on
police," Fink said. "People's occupations are on the line. Possible
criminal charges and all the things that come along with a bad
shooting."

Fink said the investment in V-300 is needed in the county. Two law
enforcement officers have been killed in the city within the last four
and a half years. One officer narrowly dodged bullets during the
Shannon Rogler incident in December 2013. Rogler was convicted for
allegedly setting fire to his former residence and shooting at police
during a standoff at a mobile home park. Mass shootings are also
happening across the United States, most recently in Colorado Spring,
Colo., and San Bernardino, Calif. The shootings appear to be happening
anytime, anywhere.

In the long-term, Fink said the county should consider building an
indoor/outdoor range and area for emergency vehicle driving training
for law enforcement. However, he said the expense for that would far
exceed the virtual range and would be tougher to justify.

A firing range for the Fond du Lac Police might be included in a
planned city police/fire training facility, Fink said. It's slotted in
the city's Capital Improvement Plan for 2017. Fink hopes police can
share the range with the Sheriff's Office.

Reach Justin Kabbes at 920-907-7925 or [email protected].