A Tyrone police

officer walks behind a department store and finds

a drunk trying to break in. The officer shouts

for the man to stop and show his hands, and he

responds by dropping a knife to the ground, or

coming at the officer with the weapon, or coming

from behind a dumpster with a gun drawn.

Any of these

scenarios would require a split-second decision

that could mean life or death. Fortunately, in

this case they all took place Friday morning in

the safety of a darkened room in a trailer with

the perpetrator only an image on a large video

screen.

Officers from area

police departments visited Fayetteville last week

to utilize a unique training facility operated by

the Toccoa Police Department. A $200,000

computerized mobile shooting simulator provides

officers with literally hundreds of possible

situations to test their reflexes and decision

making in one of the most state-of-the-art

interactive videos anywhere.

As the Tyrone

officer mentioned above took her turn in the

approximately 400-sq. ft. carpeted room with the

floor-to-ceiling video screen, Toccoa's Lt. Butch

Newkirk, a 22-year police veteran, was at the

controls of the sophisticated computer in the

next room. Developed by a Los Angeles police

officer, it recreates nearly 100 incident

scenarios with five possible ways for each one to

turn out, depending on the officer's reaction.

With the click of a

key, Newkirk can direct the villains on screen;

for instance, a group of men exiting a bank,

coming out with guns blazing or their hands up. A

group of punks loitering in a parking lot can

fire at the officer or simply get in their car

and drive off.

The officers in

training use special weapons that shoot a laser

at the screen so the computer can identify its

trajectory and whether it hits the target. Shell

casings are discharged just as when firing real

bullets on the street.

The computer,

though, is unique in that it can shoot back. A

small barrel above the screen can zero in on an

officer who is not properly taking cover behind

one of the two carpeted barriers provided and

fire a round plastic projectile at an exposed

knee or arm. Newkirk says he never aims for the

head or the chest, but these babies are felt no

matter where they hit.

The computer is

even smart enough that two officers can

participate in the same exercise and it will know

which officer shoots which bad guy.

Newkirk said the

mobile training unit, one of only 12 in

existence, is in constant demand around Georgia

and outside the state as well. It is an extension

of a large training facility in Toccoa that

regularly trains SWAT teams and other officers in

a variety of police courses.

All 39 officers of

the Fayetteville Police Department visited the

training facility over the course of two days,

according to Lt. Tom Kirkbride. In addition to

Tyrone, the cities of Palmetto and Senoia sent

their officers there as well.

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