Utah company training officers and soldiers for urban warfare

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

Jed Boal reporting The deadly shooting at Northern Illinois University this week compelled a Utah company to make a broad offer of its expertise and facilities. The company believes the training it offers could help save lives in similar attacks in the future.

OPSGEAR is a North Salt Lake company that sells military and police gear but also runs an urban warfare training center. After the Trolley Square shooting anniversary and the university assault this week, the company founder is determined to make "force-on-force" training available to more officers.

"Force on force adds all of the elements of a real shooting, except for lethal munitions," explained David Burnell, CEO and founder of OPSGEAR.

Utah company training officers and soldiers for urban warfare

The training DVD "Shots Fired" chronicles Salt Lake's genealogy library shooting eight years ago, the Trolley Square shooting and others.

Salt Lake SWAT officers talk about the training they had here that made a difference. "They were prepared to make entry into the mall and decisively end the problem, which is why it became six minutes instead of perhaps 15 or 20," Burnell said.

Thousands of cops and troops train here, including the largest departments on the Wasatch Front. Burnell opens the Urban Warfare Center to military and law enforcement for free and wants departments nationwide to know about force-on-force training, so he's offering those groups a copy of the DVD. "I woke up and I thought, ‘We have to get this word out,'" he said.

The idea is to create a scenario that bombards the five physical senses and comes close to the feeling of an actual shooting. They want to challenge the officer but also build up his confidence. "It really takes you into a three-dimensional world. Not only are you looking at two-dimensional targets down range, you're addressed with people who are thinking breathing, communicating and trying to kill you inside of a building," Burnell said.

Part of the philosophy is end the problems quickly, take down the threat to save lives. "The ever-changing battlefield, even in the context of an active shooter in law enforcement, shifts on you. So, you have to train to be able to adapt to that shift, change the tempo of the battle in your favor, and apprehend or take down the threat," Burnell said.

The DVD talks about force-on-force methods and the facilities. The owner hopes even more police officers and soldiers take the opportunity to train there. For more information click the related link.