Yuma County using super FATS firearms simulator

Yuma Sun, (Sept. 5)

Yuma County Probation Officer Anita Salisbury shot an enraged armed man who was threatening to kill his former manager.

With her partner Martin Mendez providing cover, Salisbury had ordered the man several times to drop the handgun but he wouldn't, so she fired her 9 mm sidearm through the glass office window. The man fell to the floor as the glass shattered and the terrified manager ran to safety.

Salisbury and Mendez did everything correctly ? by the book, so to speak ? and the good news is no one actually got hurt.

The heart-pounding, adrenaline-charged deadly confrontation was a computer-driven video projection that took place recently in a training room at the Yuma County Juvenile Court Detention facility. The 9 mm pistols she and Mendez used were real Glock semi-automatics specially rigged to a compressed air tank and a computer, simulating the recoil and snap back of the slide each time they squeezed the trigger.

"I'd rather make my mistakes here than out on the streets," Salisbury said.
In less than 15 minutes, Salisbury and Mendez were facing down a suicidal fat man with a handgun who was sitting on the loading dock of a shipping company. The distraught man put the pistol to his right temple and appeared as though he were going to kill himself, but Salisbury talked him into putting the handgun down and peacefully surrendering.

"Your heart's pumping and you've got the stress level up there. It just doesn't get any more realistic than this," said Mendez, an adult probation supervisor.

Starting this month, 17 juvenile probation officers will go through the same training using the Firearm Training System, a high-tech $60,000 unit, said George Owens, Yuma County Juvenile Court training instructor.

Purchased in July, the system known as FATS, which utilizes digital video discs, teaches more than marksmanship ? it teaches officers to be observant and how to use good judgment, and it enables them to experience the physical stress one's body feels during high-risk situations.

"When you're talking about situations, you don't know what's going to happen. You have to react," Owens said.

The scenarios vary and the instructor is able to change the outcome of each based on the officer's reactions, Owens said.

The officers are not limited to the simulated sidearms. The training system also allows them to use a can of pepper spray or a flashlight, both of which are outfitted with laser-emitters.

Use of the simulator also saves money and time when it comes to teaching marksmanship, Owens said. Instead of coordinating additional time at an outdoor shooting range and expending live ammunition, officers can polish their marksmanship skills on the virtual shooting lanes and targets on the simulator, Owens said.

The company that makes the simulators, Firearms Training Systems Inc., is based in Georgia and reported $71.9 million in sales this year, according to Hoover's Online, a business research Web site.

The company also makes simulators for military training and counts among its clients the armies of Australia, Singapore, the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Marine Corps and law enforcement agencies throughout the nation and the world, according to Hoover's.
  ¶ 2:26 PM