Updated Nov. 14 at 11:17 a.m. EST.
After receiving a grant from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, the Temple Police Department installed a 180–degree Ti Training simulator earlier this semester to equip officers with training for real-life scenarios they may experience while on patrol.
The simulator is set up in a dark room in the halls of the TUPD headquarters at 12th Street near Montgomery Avenue. It includes three projected, movable screens in a flat-U shape, speakers and a desk set-up with prop handguns, long guns and TASERs.
“Put your hands where I can see them,” exclaimed Vice President of Public Safety Jennifer Griffin as she unsheathed the handgun from her holster.
She didn’t pull a real gun – Griffin was demonstrating the Ti Training’s prop materials.
“We’re just starting to use the system, but the goal is that we’re using it every month that the officers are coming in on their shift, getting to use the system,” Griffin said. “The instructors are spread through the agency, so it’s not just one person that’s important, because the more instructors you have, the more people that you can run through while they’re working a shift.”
The Ti Trainer operates more than 900 different scenarios, with a menu for the instructors to choose from when they run a program with the officer training with the program. Last Tuesday, Griffin demonstrated the system to The Temple News, running through scenarios like a dementia patient lost on a construction site and an intruder in a laboratory facility.
Officer Chris Derose stopped going on regular patrols after more than 20 years of service in police to become one of the department’s senior trainers — whether that be on CPR, TASERs, use of force or the Ti Trainer.
Since the system was created for departments across the nation to use, instructors have officers adhere to Pennsylvania and local police guidelines rather than just the Ti Trainer’s set responses. Derose is able to change the scenario depending on the officer’s response.
“Sometimes there’s not one way to do things,” Derose said. “If an officer is comfortable doing something another way and it follows department policies and state law then it’s fine, especially involving tactics and stuff like that.”
Temple is the first academic institution in the Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey area to use this technology. A grant from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency funded the simulator.
Through meeting with Ti employees, TUPD will also be able to create, record and simulate their own scenarios based on Temple-specific areas, like different academic buildings, labs or community areas.
“We’re doing roll call training which means that our instructors are going into roll call whenever officers are getting ready to go on shift to go over policies or different scenarios or any type of incident that the officers can handle long term,” Griffin said. “We’re in an institutional academic environment. Our students go to class every day. Our police officers need to continue to train to be capable of handling any type of scenario.”
The simulator is adapted to utilize prop guns, TASERs and other typical police gear that helps the officer assimilate into the chosen scenario. If the officer decides to use force, the instructor can choose the given path that corresponds with the trainee’s actions.
The Ti Training is also equipped to use just one screen in addition to all three. Examples of a full “180” scenario include a military checkpoint, an “abandoned warehouse suicide” scenario or “drunk husband garage dispute.” The simulator updates their scenarios on a regular basis to include current events, like “blue on blue excessive force” or “aggressive protest.”
“[Officers] respond very well,” DeRose said. “Sometimes they feel awkward talking to a blank screen, but once they get used to it and start interacting with it they find it’s very helpful, and it makes them more confident.”
Details underneath each scenario include information about branching pathways for different officer responses, like the suspect responding to a flashlight, TASER or firearm, or being asked for ID or drawing their own weapon. If an officer uses any force like a TASER, the trainer can respond and simulate the suspect being tased or even shot with the simulator’s prop firearm, a CO2-powered gun.
Even though there are many resources that TUPD offers students, some feel that they should know more about how TUPD can respond better to incidents around campus.
“I hope [TUPD is] qualified enough, I just don’t know much about them,” said Mateus Miranda Moraes, a freshman bioengineering major. “I feel like the biggest thing is educating about what [they are] and how it’s different from [city] police.”
Nurbanu Sahin contributed reporting.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story stated Officer Chris Derose was retired. The story has been updated to reflect the correct information.
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