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Sandra Yi ReportingSeconds count when a police officer is posed with a potentially dangerous situation. Police in Murray have a new, state-of-the art tool to train for just that.
Sergeant: "You've got something in your waistband. Let me see what you got there."
The scenario is about three suspicious people. The police sergeant doesn't know what's going to happen next, but he has to be prepared for anything.
Sergeant: "Show me your hands, get on the ground, get on the ground. Show me your hands. (gunshots)"
If this were real life, he would have hit the suspect.
Paul Christiansen: "Officers want and need this kind of training."
It gets them as close to real-life situations as possible. A paper target can't offer that.
Paul Christiansen: "It's cutting edge as far as what's available right now in realistic training."
And in this program, officers use live fire.
Paul Christiansen: "We also want to put officers in a situation with their duty weapon, with the real recoil of a duty weapon."
The program is called Advanced Interactive Systems, or AIS. Murray Police are the first in the state to use it.
Officer Paul Christiansen, Murray Police Dept.: "When we train our officers, we want to make sure that it's realistic, that there's stress involved. And they have to make a decision, shoot or don't shoot."
Paul Christiansen: "I would rather put one of my officers in a situation and to learn from it here, and possibly make a mistake, than out on the road, where he may make a mistake and cost him his life."
The program is interactive and characters respond based on an officer's command.
Paul Christiansen: "They like this kind of training where they can deal with a real life situation and have to make the decisions, and hopefully make the correct ones."
Other police agencies have similar programs, but use lasers.
