‘Disneyland for Cops’ Blends Fantasy, Reality

Seeing a video is one thing. But going through the motions in real time can make all the difference.

So, as the Los Angeles Police Department continues retraining officers to avoid car-chase shootings such as the one that killed 13-year-old Devin Brown, a Granada Hills complex used primarily to teach recruits will become the department’s practice playing field.

“We may reenact past police-related shootings,” said Capt. Terry Hara, commanding officer of the LAPD’s Training Division. “We can always learn from past mistakes.”

Police training since the Brown shooting has so far consisted of showing officers a video instructing them not to shoot at a moving vehicle when they can get out of its way.

The new rule was instituted after the boy allegedly backed a stolen car into an officer’s vehicle in February and he was shot to death. But soon, hands-on training will take place in Granada Hills.

On a 44-acre complex all but hidden above the Golden State and San Diego freeways, the Edward M. Davis training facility is where almost all aspects of police tactics -- from driving to shooting to “verbal judo” -- are taught to recruits.

Built to LAPD instructors’ specifications, the facility’s glassy main building, 4.4-mile vehicle track, firing ranges and faux village that includes a bank, gas station and coffee shop earned it the label “Disneyland for cops.”

The 7-year-old center, formally known as the Edward M. Davis Emergency Vehicle Operations Course and Firearms/Tactics Training Facility, has attracted law enforcement visitors from as far as Russia and South Korea.

“Their mock town is the most up-to-date one we’ve seen,” said Matthew Coolidge, program manager at the Center for Land Use Interpretation, a land-use research organization based in Culver City. Coolidge visited 12 emergency response training centers in the region to prepare for an exhibit last year.

Akin to a Hollywood set, the Situation-Simulation Village serves as a stage where recruits respond to crime scenarios and learn skills ranging from learning how to speak to suspects to escaping an ambush orchestrated from a rooftop.

Building structures there are smaller than their real-life counterparts, but their level of detail is arresting.

A front desk and computer welcome imaginary guests at Hotel LAPD, and a long counter and poster-covered wall adorn The Shootist, the town’s bar.

“The idea is to put you in the scene,” said Sgt. Louis Salseda, a tactics instructor. “The more realistic we can make it, the better prepared for a situation a recruit will be.”

Wearing body armor, police recruits duck into alleyways and buildings and shoot each other with “simunition” rounds, paint-filled pellets the size of a pencil eraser head.

“By looking at the stains, we can determine who shot whom how many times and go over mistakes with trainees later,” Salseda said.

On the facility’s Emergency Vehicle Operations Course, or EVOC track, recruits are being trained to use the PIT maneuver, which was approved this month for use throughout the force. Short for Precision Immobilization Technique, it thwarts a fugitive’s escape by stopping his car after sending it into a spin.

On the track, students also negotiate sharp turns and elevation changes, drive through an inner-city grid and learn to brake on wet pavement.

Shooting and driving practice are reinforced with interactive simulators. Resembling the kinds of machines one might encounter at a video arcade, the simulators use virtual reality to teach recruits how to react to various situations.

With a price tag of more than $29 million, the complex became the primary and most sophisticated tactical skills training structure for police recruits in Los Angeles when it opened in 1998.

Before that time, recruits traveled downtown to train at the Police Academy in Elysian Park -- where they now go only to graduate -- and to Ontario International Airport for driver’s training. A third commute was necessary to another facility in Westchester, where they were taught skills such as report writing and basic law.

Numerous noise complaints flooded the LAPD soon after opening day, but a $100,000 allocation by the Los Angeles City Council to soundproof the firing ranges in 2000 fixed the problem and eased relations between neighbors and the center.

“We really haven’t heard” any noise complaints since then, said Anne Ziliak of the Granada Hills North Neighborhood Council.

She expressed concerns, however, about plans to add an 8,000-square-foot bomb squad training unit to the complex.

The unit, which requires approval from the city Board of Public Works, would be used to teach officers to disable bombs and would require test shots emitting sounds “similar to a 12-gauge shotgun,” according to a report published in November by the Department of Public Works.

Though the facility is equipped to train an average of 780 recruits a year, an LAPD hiring slowdown brought its graduating class to 99 officers in 2004. This year, 500 recruits are expected to complete the 28-week program.

In addition to testing LAPD officers for their biannual certification, the facility reserves an area for Los Angeles Fire Department training and houses a small heliport used by the Department of Water and Power.

The complex also is used to train officers in specialized skills, such as learning how to use a shotgun or sniper rifle.

Earlier plans to train personnel from other police departments at the facility -- which the LAPD hoped would generate revenue -- were abandoned, partially for lack of space, said Colleen Briggs, a senior management analyst at the center.

“Recruit training is our priority,” she said. “We have to restrict what we do in terms of space if it goes beyond that.”