“There’s only one of you and three of us,” he taunted.
As the man closed on the officer, the image froze.
Capt. James Mulla stepped to the officer’s side. “What did you have and what did you do?” he asked.
Mulla is an instructor at the New Hampshire Police Academy, and this is the academy’s state-of-the-art training simulator.
Last week was week 11 of the 16-week academy for full-time officers. Sixty-four recruits from about 35 police agencies took turns in the simulator, which uses 300-degree video images to create real-world scenarios.
Amid an ongoing national conversation about police use of force, New Hampshire’s police academy uses technology and live-actor scenarios to give officers a taste of what they’ll face on the streets.
The point is to bring classroom learning into practical application, explained Capt. Mark Bodanza, commander of the academy. “We want to expose them to as much as possible here in the training environment so when they’re out there under stress, they’re handling it appropriately,” he said.
In the simulator, officers use handguns, Tasers and pepper spray canisters that are designed to feel like the real thing but use lasers instead.
Scott Ferguson, the academy’s media specialist, programs the scenarios and can change what happens in response to the decisions a recruit makes.
If the officer successfully de-escalates a situation, Ferguson can adjust the simulation in response. But “if the officer starts yelling and screaming, instead of de-escalating it, it will escalate,” Bodanza said.
After a scenario runs, instructors debrief recruits about what they did and whether their actions were legally justified. “If not, we’re correcting their behavior before they go out into the field,” Bodanza said.
“We don’t want officers to treat every situation as a deadly force situation,” he said. “It’s just not appropriate for what we do in law enforcement.”
The state Police Standards and Training Council has a partnership with the New Hampshire chapter of National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI) to provide mental health training for police officers. That contract was renewed last month.
Last week, academy recruits spent two full days learning about mental illness from Ann Duckless, a community educator at NAMI. Then they had the chance to try out what they had learned, both in the simulator and in “live-action” scenarios.
In the simulated confrontation with the agitated man, Michael Roscoe Jr., a recruit from the Manchester Police Department, pulled his Taser as the man approached, brandishing the metal tray.
Later he told Mulla he should have created more distance between himself and the man. But he didn’t want to escalate the situation by yelling at him to drop the tray, he said.
Mulla pointed out that the man had threatened to hit him with the dangerous object. When he replayed that moment in the simulation, Roscoe was surprised; he hadn’t heard the direct threat.
That’s not uncommon in stressful situations, Bodanza said. “Sometimes you will lose auditory function, fine motor skills, dexterity. Your heart rate goes up, your respiration is up.”
That’s why this kind of training is critical, he said. “You still have to function rationally. You still have to function appropriately,” he said. “So you put them under stress so they’re accustomed to it.”
Duckless said this kind of training can’t prevent every tragedy, such as the recent fatal shooting of a mentally ill Michigan teen by police in Peterborough.
“But it certainly does insure greater awareness and sensitivity,” she said.
She said she knows that the training they do here saves lives. And the collaboration between NAMI and police gives her hope.
“We don’t see all of the success stories where that sensitivity and that awareness paid off,” she said.
Duckless teaches officers to recognize signs of mood and anxiety disorders that can affect how someone responds to a police officer. She talks to them about how to defuse a tense situation with someone in crisis, and tells them it’s important to forge relationships with residents in their communities who have mental illnesses.
“This is community policing at its best,” she said.
The “capstone” of NAMI’s training, Duckless said, is something called “In Our Own Voice,” bringing in individuals who have mental illnesses to tell their stories.
Last week, the academy class heard from a woman with schizophrenia and a man with post-traumatic stress disorder.
“Their stories are so powerful,” Duckless said. “Both of them suffered and struggled for a long time before they got help.”
In the end, it feels like it isn’t enough; how can 16 weeks prepare someone for all the challenges they may face on the streets?
Bodanza admits it can’t.
Upon graduation, these recruits will return to their agencies for additional training, he said. And they’ll learn on the job, hopefully with guidance from more experienced officers.
At the academy, Bodanza said, “You try to expose them to as much as possible. You lay the foundation properly, then you hope that they take advantage of the additional training options that are out there.”
Any police agency can use the academy’s simulator to train their officers, Bodanza said. Ferguson will even go out and take photos of local communities so that departments can train using local landmarks.
Michael Barber, a campus police officer at New Hampshire Hospital, is part of the new academy class. He called the mental health training “very beneficial.”
“Just the fact that we’re dealing with real people with real lives,” he said. “Just because someone has a mental health issue doesn’t mean they’re necessarily a criminal. So it’s our job to help any way we can. ...”
Outside the academy last week, the American and New Hampshire flags were at half-staff to honor the five police officers slain in Dallas. Hanging still in the summer heat, they were a reminder to these new recruits of just how high the stakes can be.
©2016 The New Hampshire Union Leader (Manchester, N.H.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
