COD's new '4-D' cop training facility 'as real as it gets'

In the 30 years he spent in law enforcement, Aurora's former police chief Bill Lawler saw countless changes in how new officers were trained.

“The lessons learned were in real life. It was on-the-job training. It was not near the experiences people today get,” said Lawler, who is now director of the Suburban Law Enforcement Academy at the College of DuPage, one of six such training academies in the state.

The academy's newest digs, the 60,000-square-foot Homeland Security Education Center on COD's Glen Ellyn campus, will open Monday.

The facility features a “4-D” tactical village, where students will be able to simulate real-life emergency situations.

On Wednesday, Lawler and his staff of law enforcement professionals conducted a mock bank robbery at the 4,500-square-foot village — complete with cops and robbers, guns and lots of noise.

It's all possible through the use of what officials call “a very high-tech laser tag,” in which laser sensors on vests record whether or not a subject has been “hit.”

Participants use real AR15 rifles that eject blank shell casings upon firing. The guns also produce noise and flashes of light.

The technology, named the Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System, has been used by the U.S. Army for almost 30 years. But COD is the first educational institution to use it, according to Brooks Davis, the sales and marketing manager for Cubic, the MILES manufacturer.

He said the system gives instructors an immense volume of data from the 1½-minute mock engagement. They can find out which officer shot which robber and where on the body the victim was hit.

During the demonstration, four officers responded to the scene of an armed robbery at the village's DuPage Savings and Loan bank. Their target: two suspects brandishing assault rifles and firing away.

A gunbattle ensues. If the vest beeps twice, it's a near miss. If it beeps once, you're dead.

In the end, the good guys win.

But in real life, all those putting on the demonstration are in law enforcement — many of them instructors at the academy. Those who participated on Wednesday were from the Bloomingdale, West Chicago, North Aurora, Hanover Park and Braidwood police departments.

The officers noted it was typical to use places like abandoned warehouses for such training in the past. Even then, it wasn't as realistic.

“This is as real as it gets,” said Braidwood police officer Bret Goodwin. “Out on the street you have one chance to make it right. Here you can make mistakes.”