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| Kyle Efrid with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office aims his pistol at a subject after disarming him during a recent training drill at SCC’s Jackson Campus in Sylva. |
One minute, a masked man threatens a law enforcement officer with a pistol and refuses orders to drop the weapon.
Seconds later, another man approaches the same officer armed with a smart phone and angry rhetoric while capturing selfie photos and video in an attempt to provoke an overreaction.
Then comes a frantic man who’s late for a ballgame and needs directions to the stadium.
Every time one scenario ends, the officer is required to turn around. He has no idea who he’ll face next, but he’s required to respond appropriately– regardless of whether that means drawing his firearm, ignoring a hostile activist or helping a baseball fan get to his game.
It’s called the “Pressure Box,” and it was part of the continuing education training offered to regional law enforcement agencies on June 1 at Southwestern Community College’s Jackson Campus. Though the drills took place before the recent attack on Dallas police, Curtis Dowdle - SCC’s dean of public safety training - said current events add relevance to the work that he and his team do on a daily basis.
“The mind is the most important tool we can work on,” Dowdle said. “We want law enforcement professionals we train to be mentally prepared. When we see what happened in Dallas, in Baton Rouge and in Minnesota, we’re reminded how important it is that we remain vigilant and that our training practices evolve to protect citizens as well as ourselves. We want every officer to be able to go home at the end of each shift. Unfortunately in Dallas, there are five officers who will never have that opportunity again.”
The recent weeklong training was conducted by Kirk Hensley, a N.C. state trooper who will oversee a similar program in September at SCC’s Public Safety Training Center in Franklin.
“This training brings together what we’ve learned through 12 years of research,” said Kirk Hensley, a N.C. state trooper who oversaw the weeklong program. “We found that our troopers were being killed and assaulted at a rate that’s 10 times the national average.
“So we took a hard look at how we’d been conducting our training,” Hensley sadded. “We determined you can’t use a cookie cutter approach because you’ll never grow. We want our officers to grow and adapt. These types of exercises force officers to think on their feet, and they learn how to react in high-pressure situations that most folks could never imagine.”
The training included some class time as well as a variety of outdoor exercises designed to keep officers’ skills and reflexes sharp.
“It has been awesome; a real eye-opener,” said Ridge Parris, a deputy sheriff in Jackson County. “It gives us a feel for real-life situations. Anyone who might think what we do is easy should come out and try these scenarios.
“We focus on when, why and when not to draw a weapon – and when not to use force,” Parris added.
Using Glock pistols outfitted with paintball pellets, officers also freshened up their skills and techniques with a variety of drills such as firing at bouncing tennis balls and other targets.
They also refined interrogation and search skills while working with role-players posing as suspicious, belligerent subjects.
“Our training has changed a lot over the years,” said Scott Buttery, a patrol lieutenant with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office. He also serves as a part time instructor for SCC.
“It’s a never-ending cycle,” Buttery added. “In law enforcement, the need to train never ends. We are always working to keep our officers sharp so that we can save lives and protect the public.”
For more information about SCC’s public safety training, visit www.southwesterncc.edu/pstc or call 828.306.7041.
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| Trainer Kirk Hensley (left) role plays as a citizen journalist trying to get under the skin of Craig Dills, a deputy sheriff from Henderson County, last month in a training drill at SCC’s Jackson Campus in Sylva. |
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| Scott Walters, a deputy with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, breaks up a “fight” between role players and trainers Kirk Hensley and Scott Buttery while training last month at SCC’s Jackson Campus in Sylva. |
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| Craig Dills, a deputy sheriff from Henderson County, subdues role-player/trainer Kirk Hensley during a scenario-training drill last month at SCC’s Jackson Campus in Sylva. |
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| Ridge Parris, a deputy with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, aims his taser at a role-player during a training exercise last month at SCC’s Jackson Campus in Sylva. |
