(Spirit Lake)– Area law enforcement agencies are taking advantage of a special training opportunity.
A training simulator from the Sioux City Police Department’s Regional Training Center has set up shop at the Spirit Lake Police Department through Thursday.
Jeff Finken of the Sioux City P.D. Regional Training Center tells KUOO news the simulator, housed in a large trailer, trains officers in several different scenarios. Finken says it consists of a large video screen that contains depictions of various types of stand-offs in which the officer has to decide a tactic to use, whether to shoot or not, and so on. He says it also teaches officers how to react when they reach “survivor stress mode”…a condition where the heart rate increases dramatically and your body is physically impaired and an officer has to rely on gross motor skills rather than fine or complex motor skills.
Finken says they’ve had the simulator for about two years now and have been travelling throughout the region with it to a number of law enforcement agencies.
Funding for the simulator was made possible through a federal appropriation to train officers to experience and deal with the region’s drug problem–especially meth.
Finken says so far, about 25 law enforcement agencies in the region and about 350 officers have been trained by the simulator free of charge.
Brian Stahl, a Sergeant with the Spirit Lake Police Department, says they’re extremely grateful for having this type of training opportuniy available locally.
The Dickinson County Sheriff’s Office, Arnolds Park, Okoboji, Milford and Lake Park Police Departments and officers from law enforcement agencies in surrounding counties have been training with the simulator while it’s been in Spirit Lake.
