CAPE POLICE OFFICERS SET SIGHTS ON LIFELIKE BIANNUAL FIREARMS TRAINING

The suspect's head is peeking over the right shoulder of the silhouette of his hostage. Detective Robert McCoy levels his shiny, stainless steel .10mm Smith & Wesson at the suspect's head and fires -- scoring a direct hit.

No, it's not a scene from the latest episode of "Cops;" it's firearms qualification for all officers of the Cape Girardeau Police Department.

Every gun-toting member of the department recently had to prove they know how to use their firearms on a 10-shot "metal course" set up on a farm a few miles outside the city.

The course consists of 10 targets the officers must hit with live ammunition with no less than 10 and no more than 18 shots. Officers carrying semi-automatic weapons must demonstrate their ability to change clips at least once as they are going through the course.

"We used to have what we call `paper courses' where officers fired 60 rounds, starting seven yards from the target and backing up to about 25 yards away by the time they finished," said Lt. Dale Ratliff, who conducts the firearms qualifications at the department. "But (Police Chief Howard Boyd Jr.) wanted a more realistic course for the officers to qualify on; this is what we came up with.

"In this course you have to place the bullets; we stress center mass," he said. "You have to aim for the center of the largest target you have."

The course starts with a series of four targets arranged in a hostage-type situation. First, the shooter must hit the suspect standing behind the hostage -- aiming for a 9-inch circle symbolizing the suspect's head. Officers shooting the hostage immediately fail and must start over.

After taking care of the suspect, the shooter then must set his sights on a second figure to the right of the first target. The second target must be hit squarely in the chest area, which will then cause a target to pop up in the head area, which the shooter must also knock down.

After the second suspect is effectively killed, a third target to the left of the first target must be knocked down via a shot in the middle of a circled-off area.

The rest of the course involves shooting at targets from the clear, behind obstacles and at varying distances. The final obstacle requires the officer to hit a target twice, using his weak hand to operate the gun.

"The results of this course are immediately available to the shooter and allow him to proceed at his own pace," said Ratilff. Shooting situations are realistic in fashion and allow the use of any handgun presently being carried by the officers.

Standard issue weapons at the police department are .357 caliber Magnum revolvers. But after an officer has been with the department at least six months, he can carry a semi-automatic weapon of his choosing as long as it is approved by the department and he qualifies with it on the range.

A few officers were firing their new guns for the first time.

"Sometimes we'll come out here with an officer to verify how a weapon is shooting or to adjust the sights if necessary," said Ratliff. The "sights" of the gun is an alignment system affixed on top of the barrel, which the officer should use when focusing a gun on a target.

"Sights are adjusted to people," said Ratliff. "The theory is that if you aim at the target the same way, everyone should shoot the same -- but that's not always the case.

"Some people will pull the gun to the left as it fires or push to the right," he said. "So we can move the sights on the gun to accommodate for that individual's shooting style."

For example, one officer who went through the course scored much higher than he had in past years. Ratliff sent him back over to a truck to reload and adjust the sights on the gun. When the officer returned, he finished the course with a nearly perfect score.

"If there's a problem, we can usually fix it," said Ratliff. "No one fails -- we just keep trying until we've straightened things out."

Since the course requires less than the normal amount of ammunition carried by police officers on the street, those qualifying with semi-automatic weapons were asked to load only six bullets into their first clip, thereby necessitating a cartridge change before completion of the course.

One officer carrying a revolver got through the first set of obstacles in six shots -- although he thought he had only fired five times. He pointed at the next target and the gun just clicked onto an empty chamber.

"You see, you just got yourself shot there," Ratliff said to the officer and the group. "Check your ammunition; don't rely on how many rounds you think you fired.

"If you are out on the street, you're not going to be counting the number of rounds you shoot," he said. "If you think you're low, change the cartridge out or just take that few seconds to check."

There were other lessons learned during the shooting exercise. A couple of the officers who carry Glocks learned the hard way to keep their hands and thumbs out of the way when gripping the gun. The gun's reloading barrel pops back in an instant and will take a chunk out of anything in its way on its way back to the firing position.

Others were told how to adjust shots hitting targets too low, too high or not at all.

After the shooting exercise, the officers reloaded their guns and filled the extra clips they carry on their gunbelts. Many will not fire their guns again until the spring exercise.

"Some departments have officers shoot 50, 60 or even 100 rounds when they qualify with their weapons," Ratliff said. "But this is more realistic -- you're not going to run into a shooting situation on the street where you're going to fire 100 rounds at somebody.

"The truth of the matter is that you're probably going to be 7 to 10 yards from someone and you're going to fire off one, maybe two rounds," he said. "That's why we do it this way."