Deputies Learn From Interactive Video

Responding to a call from a shop owner during a holdup, a police officer races to the crime scene and sees a gunman backing out of a building. The gunman starts to turn. The officer shoots.

But he got the wrong man. The officer just killed the shop owner, not the criminal.

Luckily, this is just a scene from a new interactive video system that helps officers test their critical judgment and reaction time in life-or-death, shoot-or-don’t-shoot situations.

The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, using confiscated drug money, has purchased the new $110,000 training tool, designed by Firearms Training Systems.

The video places officers in a virtual crime situation and requires them to decide what method of force is necessary to control the behavior of the person before them. Officers are equipped with either a 9 mm handgun, an 870 Remington, pepper spray or a flashlight, and must decide to shoot or spray, or issue a verbal command.

Although FBI crime statistics show Ventura is the safest county west of the Ohio River, three officers have been shot to death in the past year and a half.

“Officers are being put in situations like this all the time where there are weapons drawn and they have to decide ‘Do I shoot this guy or do I not?’ ” said Sgt. Bruce Watlington of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department. The department has about 60 scenes available, but those can change.

“If you see a guy coming at your partner with a knife one time, it doesn’t mean next time he’s gonna do the same thing,” Watlington said. “He might drop the knife the next time around.”

Soon, Watlington said, officers will be able to shoot their own videos and create their own scenes.

“You’re learning,” Watlington said. “But I’d be lying if I told you it wasn’t fun.”