Simulator Helps Train Torrance Police

Torrance police have purchased a Fire Arms Training Simulator to supplement training on the firing range. The department is the first South Bay law enforcement agency to buy the new high-technology equipment and incorporate it into its officer training on a regular basis.

The simulator re-creates an actual crime scene with a videotape of scenarios such as a holdup or an undercover operation. The video is projected onto a life-size screen and officers play along with the video, using a gun that shoots laser beams instead of bullets, as if it were a real crime.

Range Master Jim Martinez said the machine tracks whether the officers, who began training with the $116,000 machine last week, pull the trigger too soon and calculates missed shots and how well an officer observes an assailant’s body language. Martinez said the new technology also allows firing range trainers to evaluate whether officers are following the department’s policies for pulling the trigger.

“There is a one-second period that you have to make a decision [on shooting the gun],” Martinez said.

“This machine allows each officer to see how well they are processing all the information involved in that kind of situation.”