NCJ Number
90408
Journal
Law and Order Volume: 31 Issue: 6 Dated: (June 1983) Pages: 16-20
Date Published
1983
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This description of the development of expanded firearms training for the Wheeling Police Department (Ill.) covers planning and implementation, the basic course, qualification requirements, range capabilities, range communications, and improving the course.
Abstract
Plans to equip the new range, provide for its operation, and to use it in a comprehensive training program allowed sufficient time to review and update policies for the police use of deadly force. Classroom training also reviewed basic elements in the qualification program. Prior to developing the basic course, national studies and statistics on armed confrontations involving officers were reviewed. The 30-round basic qualification course combines rigid time requirements with double-action firing and five-round shooting under combat-type conditions to expose the shooter to a variety of statistically probable situations. Officers repeat the basic course of fire at least once during monthly sessions to meet departmental twice-a-year qualification requirements. Modest in size when compared to a range of a metropolitan police force, the six-position Wheeling range offers the same electronic equipment and advanced safety features of facilities accommodating four to five times as many shooters. The range communications system permits the rangemaster, instructors, and shooters to communicate through two-way intercom speakers wall-mounted at the rear of the range. Because officers now consistently meet the departmental standard for basic qualification, steps are being taken to raise the levels of individual and group performance by introducing additional, more difficult, and stress-producing elements into the course. Another future possibility is combat-simulated scenarios that test the shooter's situational judgment and knowledge of departmental shooting guidelines simultaneously.