Bend police show deadly force simulator

Every spring, the Bend Police Department hosts a Citizens Academy, a nine-week program that exposes people to officers’ day-to-day assignments and training. Wednesday night, they got a chance to look at the training used for split-second decisions regarding use of force.

The lesson was centered around “shoot-don’t shoot” scenarios. Participants could stand and react in a virtual simulator.

Sgt. Tom Pine said the simulator is for training officers, but also gives others a feeling of being in a stressful situation.

“We give a chance to folks that can participate in that,” Pine said. “we do some demonstrations, we show them how and why we use it, and how that can improve an officer’s performance out on the street, and what the city is doing when it comes to their policing.”

The Citizens Academy gives people a behind-the-scenes lesson, covering all aspects of their duties.

Pine said it shows participants “what police officers actually do and how the police department works, and gives them kind of a more in-depth exposure, rather than a simple ride-along.”

Officer safety is a topic they encompass in every aspect. Pine explained, “We do focus on surviving a physical lethal force encounter, but we also focus on emotional survival, social survival, financial survival, cultural survival.”

The goal of the program is to educate and equip people with what it’s like to be in an officers’ shoes.

“To be out on the street, and when they have a situation where someone maybe escalates with them — ‘Hey I’ve done this before, I know what to do. I am going to be successful,'” Pine said. “They have confidence. They’ve got good training. They’ve done that before.”