Heroes in Training

Tools

By Sarah Gravlee

Story Published: May 14, 2010 at 2:59 PM MST

Story Updated: May 14, 2010 at 2:59 PM MST

BILLINGS - Members of the Billings Police Department put themselves in harms way every day to protect the residents of Billings. They have weapons to protect themselves, but those guns come loaded with responsibility.

"Officers draw their weapons constantly," said Sgt. Jay Berry.

With about 140 officers on the force, Berry wants to make sure they all know what they're doing. He heads up the firearms training programs for the BPD.

"In any profession you can make mistakes and fall back and fix it," Berry said. "Once you shoot somebody they're shot. You can't take that back. So mistakes can't happen."

Officers train on indoor and outdoor firing ranges, but the department also has a computer simulator to take officers through more most real-world situations.

"This is our firearms simulator," He said showing KULR-8 the program. "It allows us to put the officers under stressful situations. Actual shoot and don't shoot situations."

In this simulator, as in the real world, the difference of life and death must be made in a split second.

"You have to have people in the mindset that allows them to make literally split second decisions," Berry said.

The simulator starts easy with still targets, then allows trainees to shoot at a moving target. Then trainees move on to several real world situations. Berry hopes with the proper training, officers are ready to handle real world threats, with the hope that deadly force will be the last resort.

"If you use your weapon and your tactics properly it'll prevent the gunfight," he said.

All officers train on the program at least once a year, but Berry is hoping to get officers to use it several times throughout the year.

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