Citizens try police de-escalation, use of force with training simulations
Jun. 9—Attendees of the OSBI Citizens Academy on Thursday were able to experience some of the scenarios that law enforcement officers might face when making split-second decisions to use force.
"We go through a training called force science," Special Agent Phillip Ott said. "Force science teaches us that we have — not seconds — less than a second to make that decision about whether or not our life is in danger and if we have the right to defend ourselves."
The attendees used a driving simulator and the MILO Virtual Simulation at Meridian Technology Center — which provides students with critical incident, de-escalation, tactical judgment and firearms proficiency training. The MILO simulator offers a three-screen interactive configuration that provides enhanced field of view for realism, allowing trainees to respond to multiple threats simultaneously.
Instructor Les Little just completed his first year of teaching the school's new criminal justice program after a 23-year career at the Stillwater Police Department and 10 years of teaching cybersecurity.
"They always say the first year you have a new program, ask for the moon and see what you get, so I did," Little said. "I didn't get everything, but they bought me a simulator and a couple machines I didn't expect."
The MILO simulator has about 400 scenarios, and the Citizens Academy attendees tried to de-escalate domestic disputes, neutralize violent assailants on a crowded bus and even stop an active school shooting.
Citizens that used the driving simulator were placed directly into a police vehicle's fully-equipped cabin, and they were given scenarios that involved navigating through heavy traffic to get to a crime scene or high-speed chases. One scenario required a participant to exit the driving simulator and enter the MILO simulator to shoot an armed and dangerous suspect.
That particular scenario teaches officers when they're permitted to shoot a fleeing felon, which is illegal under most circumstances because of the Tennessee v. Garner Supreme Court decision, Little said.
"(The virtual suspect) has actually shot a bunch of people on the highway, and whenever you go engage him he's running," Little said. "But he still poses a danger to the public."
OSBI Captain Stan Florence said training such as this is vital in today's society.
"Ten years ago, Oklahoma would have somewhere around six to eight deadly use of force issues per year, but that began to escalate — even before what we saw in 2020," Florence said. "By about the year 2016, we were up to about 36 officer-involved shooting deaths in Oklahoma, and so it began to really highlight the need to look at this."
