Always training

John Walker
The Duncan Banner

DUNCAN May 12, 2008 03:01 pm

— At about 10:30 a.m. Thursday, the 911 call center sent a message over scanner airwaves to all police personnel that a woman had called frantically yelling that someone had stolen her baby and then she hung up.
Officers raced to where the suspects were last seen near the Baptist church at 31st and Beech Avenue.
The officers saw two men jump out of a pickup and run nearly 100 yards to get behind the building.
“This is my baby! Don’t take him away!” yelled one of the men as he ran away.
Once officers caught up with the fleeing men, they commanded them to get on the ground and hand the baby over.
After the men were handcuffed, a supervisor showed up and gave the signal to release the “suspects” and then promptly held a debriefing.
For those who watched the action, it probably appeared this was a real situation.
This, however, was a training exercise put on by the Duncan Police Department to help its officers in defense tactics.
“We used slightly different scenarios throughout the day,” Lt. Chris Ray said.
He said the scenarios varied in difficulty from the easiest where the suspects follow all the orders all the way up to the most difficult situation where they engaged the officers in cross-fire.
“We wanted to make this as realistic as possible without anyone getting hurt,” Ray said.
DPD Master Officer Jason Egger said that it was nice to do something not so routine.
“It made us think and challenged us,” Egger said. “It wasn’t a routine drill.”
DPD Officer Jarrod Bishop agreed.
To ensure the safety of the officers during the simulation, officers used what Ray called “blue guns” with “simmunition” in place of actual bullets.
“Simmunitions are like pellets or paintballs,” he said. “They’re in a 9 millimeter cartridge and fire at 500 feet per second. They’re less powerful and not as dangerous as a real gun, but it will leave a welt if you are hit.”
To protect themselves, the officers portraying the suspects, DPD Sgt. David Woods and Master Officer Jonathon Williams, wore face masks.
The whole exercise, Ray said, was a success.
“The officers all responded well to their training,” Ray said.
“You can tell they have good experience. This exercise helped them know what force they are justified in using depending on the situation.”
There were nine officers involved in the exercise Thursday.
The rest of the police force will have an opportunity to participate in the same training over two Thursdays.

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