BATTLE MOUNTAIN - After July 1, when the new budget cycle kicks in, the Lander County Sheriff's Office will be purchasing a new simulator training program that will have 75 real life scenarios for officers to act out to improve their performance in various situations.
The VirTra Simulator includes street and jail scenarios, said Sgt. Joseph Jones, the sheriff's office training officer. It will be utilized by all 23 sworn officers of the sheriff's office, patrol deputies and detention officers alike. It is a voluntary training program but Jones said he is confident all of the officers will want to use it.
"Everybody is very excited," he said.
The program costs $119,569, which was approved by Lander County commissioners at their June 13 meeting. It is a one-time cost, said Jones, who spent three years researching simulator programs. Deputy Steven Smith found this particular simulator program while doing Internet research and brought it to Jones' attention.
Jones said he did extensive research on this program, including attending the SHOT Show, a law enforcement convention, in Las Vegas last year with Deputy Matthew Levi to sample the program after making contact with the company, which is out of Tempe, Ariz.
The simulator the sheriff's office is purchasing is called a V-180. It comes with three screens to give the deputy a 180-degree view and has the capability to expand to five screens to give the officer a 360-degree training perspective. Jones said his goal is to eventually expand the training to five screens.
The way it works is that the scenarios are computer-based and are projected onto the three different screens. The person has to act out the scene as he or she would in a real life circumstance.
The program covers lethal and non-lethal encounters that make the officer choose various types of weapons from pepper spray and Tasers to firearms. It takes into account real world situations, such as ambushes and active shooters, Jones explained.
"It helps them to train to maintain their situational awareness during extremely stressful times," Jones said. "It has situations they don't do all the time so that way they receive experience in that area."
The officers will be evaluated by Jones or Undersheriff Robert Quick, who can change the scenarios based upon the actions of the deputy.
Up to three people can train at one time. Jones said he plans on having the training available seven days a week in one and a half to two-hour sessions. Scenarios last anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes, he said.
"I am anticipating that it will increase their skills tremendously," Jones said. "The scenarios that they will be put through will challenge everything from their verbal commands to their judgment. It'll identify potential problem areas that can be corrected before they become a real issue on the street or in the jail."
Quick and Jones will take notes on each deputy's performance to give them feedback on strong and weak areas and to know in which areas the person will need the most training.
"It will increase the training of the officer, making better trained deputies and well-trained deputies make a safer community," Jones said. "You can't put a price tag on safety."
The simulator will be stationed at the sheriff's office in the training room. Jones said Sheriff Ron Unger has been supportive of the program.
He added that he borrowed a simulator, a different model with one screen, from the Police Officer Standards and Training (POST) Academy two months ago and put each officer through a one-hour training with about 12 scenarios. He said he was pleased with it.
According to the VirTra website at www.virtra.com, the V-180 is the higher standard for law enforcement judgmental use-of-force and firearms training. This simulator has a compact footprint that can accommodate small spaces.
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