Fox Lake police department's 'shoot house' low budget, but high impact

Fox Lake officials are hoping a bunch of donated plywood and 2x4s will make their police officers better.

Fox Lake police commanders, using donated wood from area businesses, created a low-budget "shoot house" in the department's unfinished basement, and have been training officers to be better prepared for entering homes where armed offenders might be present.

The Fox Lake officers have been spending a couple of hours a week walking through the semi-complex maze of walls and doors in the building at 301 S. Route 59, looking for bad guys hiding within.

Hopefully, said Lt. Joe Gliniewicz, with the training behind them, officers will be better equipped to respond to dangerous situations.

"By going through this exercise, we train their muscle memory to react in a split second," Gliniewicz said.

Gliniewicz said the design for the training room mirrors the floor plan of other buildings in Fox Lake where officers might have to enter.

And, he said, by working their way through the shoot house, interacting with props inside the building, and then reacting with force if necessary, officers will remain calmer and rely on training should the need ever arise.

"It's a matter of muscle training and muscle memory," Gliniewicz said. "By getting them to do this over and over, they build their muscles to react when they need to."

Gliniewicz sends the officers out in the hall, then uses cardboard cutouts of bad guys and puts them inside the shoot house. Then, he places other cutouts of unarmed civilians inside the shoot house.

The officers walk through the shoot house, avoiding obstacles on the floors and the doors, and interacting with the cutouts.

Basically, if it's an unarmed civilian, the officers must speak with them and get them to safety. But, if they are bad guys, they are free to pull the trigger of a gun that shoots rubber bullets.

"If they mess up, then we talk with them about what they should have done differently, then increase the difficulty on what they will experience inside here," he said. "In the end, we hope they will have more confidence when they need to search a building."

Police Chief Mike Behan said the shoot house gives officers the training they require at a time when training money is slim.

"When budgets get cut, training also gets cut," he said. "This is a great example of keeping our officers trained and sharp during tough economic times."

But, he said, the best part is that floor plans follow similar floor plans and situations are created that they may run across out on the street.

"The floor plan really does follow the set up for some of the apartment complexes we visit regularly in Fox Lake," he said. "That's good training right there."