I think it’s payback time.” The big, gruff police sergeant clapped me on the shoulder and pointed me toward the simulator room. I’d been doing supervisory skills training for a group of police sergeants for two days. I’d been putting them through their paces. Now it was their turn to be in charge.

That night the members of the current class in the department’s Citizen’s Police Academy would experience the shooting simulator. I was to experience it with them.

I figured I’d do pretty well. I’m a former Marine and familiar with firearms. Besides the simulator didn’t look intimidating at all.

At first glance, a shooting simulator looks like a giant video game. There’s a big screen and a real Glock 17 rigged to recoil when fired even though there were no rounds in it.

“Shooting simulator” is a misnomer. “Decision Simulator” would be better. A scenario plays out on the screen. The trainee has about ten feet to move and take cover behind props. Scenarios are based on real situations that police officers encounter, like traffic stops.  Actors play the parts of the people the officers encounter.

A trainee must decide what to do. That includes giving voice commands and, if necessary, shooting at the subject on the screen. An instructor can branch the scenario, to make sure that each experience is different.

I don’t remember the details of how badly I did, but let’s just say that the bad guys would have conquered the world on my watch. I did manage to shoot a couple of tires, a tree, a pickup truck, a bar mirror, and at least three innocent people.

I wasn’t the worst in the group, but I was close. A young man, a reporter, was stunned at how fast things moved and how hard it was to decide quickly what to do and then do it.

“On TV they shoot the gun out of people’s hands,” he said.

“Yeah,” another participant chimed in, “while riding on a galloping horse.”

Shooting Simulator Rule 1: It’s always harder than it looks.

Shooting Simulator Rule 2: Training isn’t realistic unless it includes emotions and pressure.

There was an older woman in the group who was amazed at how heavy the pistol was. She seemed to have trouble holding it. She turned in the second-best performance of her Academy class.

Shooting Simulator Rule 3: You can’t tell by looking who’s going to be good.

Takeaways

Shooting Simulator Rule 1: It’s always harder than it looks.

Shooting Simulator Rule 2: Training isn’t realistic unless it includes emotions and pressure.

Shooting Simulator Rule 3: You can’t tell by looking who’s going to be good.

Unfamiliar situations seem to move fast.

Emotions affect our decisions.

Real life is not like TV drama.