New State Police Training Facility

Reported by: Steve Knight
Last Update: 3/13 5:54 pm
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21 WHP CBS

CBS 21's Sherry Christian takes us inside the new Pennsylvania State Police Firearms Scenario Training Facility.

The Firearms Scenario Training Facility, also known by the people who use it as the "Shoot House". On the outside, it looks like a typical single family home, but on the inside, more than 200 different crime scenes are simulated to train state police cadets, troopers and other law enforcement officers.

What makes the different scenes possible is movable walls on one side of the house - called the training side.

Cpl. Gregory Thompson
“I just lock it and now they have a wall here that they can no longer go straight and it changes their whole plan of attack and how to clear this building.”

The other side is what's called the PRISM side -- it houses the professional range instruction simulator or PRISIM; a video simulator that projects computer generated images of various crime scenes on a large screen.

The images can be changed in response to the trainees reaction. The images can also be altered by the instructor to see how the trainee reacts in different situations.

One of the key components of the PRISIM is it shoots back. Pellets come at you at about the speed of a paint ball. But better to be shot in a simulation, than in reality.

Trainees not only use various weapons, but the lighting can change forcing them to get used to dealing with volatile situations in the dark.

State Police Commissioner Jeffrey Miller tells us it cost $518,000 of state funds to construct the training facility which was built on the grounds of the State Police Academy.
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