July 29, 2004
Dougherty County -- Georgia State Troopers were put to the ultimate test this week, having to shoot it out with armed suspects.
A high tech mobile training center in Albany this week gave Troopers valuable experience, that could save their lives.
"Georgia State Patrol, show me your hands." Georgia State Patrol Trooper Kyle Duke faces an armed suspect. Shots are fired .Fortunately the suspect is computer generated. Duke says "You can learn from mistakes here. If you mess up here, you can still go home at the end of the day."
A $280,000 mobile Firearms Training Facility provides life-like situation for troopers. How the officers react is videotaped, and then played back to learn from.
Training officer William Riner says "I can tell him what he did, and he doesn't necessarily agree that is what he done. But I can go back and show him, and that's the best feature in here."
Riner says "You swing that door open, you get out , grab that shotgun, and go down to a barricaded cover position and start giving your verbal commands talking through that front sight."
Riner said "If it saves one trooper's life, then it's worth my time out here on the road."
Trooper Duke sees a number of different scenarios, all designed to test his reactions in case it happens in real life.
The last Georgia State Patrol trooper killed by gunfire was in the 1970's.
posted at 4:13 PM by jimw@walb.com
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