Area police try out new high-tech weapons training simulator in Gurnee
Lincolnshire Police Officer Scott Holst drew his gun and scanned all sides as he moved carefully down the hallway of a school under attack.
He slowly drifted into a library and was shocked when eight students jumped out and ran screaming in front of him before a masked perpetrator fired a shotgun.
Holst fired three shots and took down the suspect, then spun on his heels to shoot another masked assailant who pointed a gun at him from the other side of the room.
Seconds later, the five video screens in front of him read “all stop,” the lights inside the room came on, and Holst tried to catch his breath.
“That was so realistic,” he said of the VirTra Systems 300 Degree Firearm Simulator. “You’re totally in the moment and immersed in what is taking place.”
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office is testing the latest state-of-the-art firearms simulator in Gurnee and claims the machine will help to better prepare an officer for having to draw his gun and fire at a suspect.
The simulator, developed by VirTra of Arizona, uses lasers and works a lot like an extremely high-end video game with video screens surrounding the officer. With the flip of a switch, the officer is placed in a real-life scenario that could include a hostage taken in a convenience store, a domestic disturbance that turns into a gunbattle, or a school shooting.
Through the use of a trainer and computer components, officers are forced to interact with people playing out a high-tension police scenario on the screen.
The officer is usually asked to work within the scenario to try and find a peaceful solution. However, one wrong turn and the offender on screen can open fire, forcing the officer to shoot back.
“Due to the way it’s set up, it immerses the officer in the scenes and forces him to react like a police officer would under similar circumstances,” said Lake County Sheriff’s Lt. Scott Morrison. “The training from this simulator moves us far from the paper target scenarios we practice with and completely immerses the officer into nearly any scenario he may find himself in.”
Matt MacCallum, a regional sales representative with VirTra, said the unit lists at a base cost of $250,000 before upgrades, and comes with 75 training scenarios.
He added the unit can be calibrated for each officer and can store various results from officers who use the machine on a regular basis.
MacCallum said each scenario may end in different ways, depending on how the officer elects to diffuse the situation. For example, an officer can talk suspects into dropping their weapons, or use pepper spray or a Taser to knock down a subject.
It’s so realistic, the machine also comes with a pulsating device that mimics when an officer is hit by a bullet.
“I got shot twice and felt it when I was hit,” said Gurnee Police Officer Jason Kalinowski. “It’s pretty awesome and more realistic than any training I’ve ever been in.”
Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran, who stepped into the machine Wednesday, said his goal is to bring the device to Lake County within the next year.
“I love it. I really can’t say enough about it,” Curran said. “I don’t see a single officer on any police force in Lake County saying they don’t need this.”
Recent mass shootings in Colorado and Wisconsin show violence is escalating, he said, and live training using something more than stationary targets will keep officers safe.
“We all learn by making mistakes,” he said. “But having regular training on a machine like this can reduce the liability and mistakes by officers in scenarios like this.”