Citizen Police Academy: ‘Shoot’ or ‘don’t shoot’ firearm training

FORT MYERS, Fla.- Facing life or death, would you pull the trigger?

WINK News continues to take you behind the badge, training with Fort Myers Police Department officers.

You might be surprised to learn, that a gun is not a police officer’s best weapon. In fact, police records show that out of 140 FMPD officers, only five officers on patrol, fired their guns in 2014.

Three times, officers shot at animals who tried to attack them. Another was accidental, and another missed its target, but was found to be justified.

During our time with the Citizen Police Academy, we are working with the Firearm Training Simulator, or as FMPD calls it, the “FATS” machines.

We acted as the police, sent to shots fired calls, erratic drivers, and even a man with a bomb.

It’s training FMPD officers go through themselves while in the academy. The machine works very much like a video game. We are told we need to interact with the screen, talk to it, and sometimes, if need be, shoot at it.

Class members have no idea what they are getting into, and how the other person on the screen will react. It’s all controlled by other officers.

“We can work with the screen, to either comply with your commands or do something different,” said Sgt. Jason Fields.

The goal of FATS training is not to make every situation so cut and dry.

“We don’t want everything to be shoot, shoot, shoot, because if they go on the road and they come across a situation, they have it trained shoot, shoot, shoot. No, they need to identify, assess the situation,” said Sgt. Fields.

As you’ve seen, the Citizen Police Academy is interactive. Wednesday, you’ll get a look at more of the “cooler ” stuff we got to play around, like cops cars, K9s and even the FMPD boat.

Click here to see part one

Click here to see part two