Matters of life and death

Thursday night, Ruth Dockins of Cape Girardeau spotted a man with a pry bar about to break into a building. She ordered him to stop. He turned around, looked chagrined and dropped the bar.

She didn't have to shoot him.

Caryn Michel of Cape Girardeau saw a robbery suspect run out the front door of a bank. She took aim at him and shot an innocent bystander.

Dockins and Michel and others got a firsthand glimpse at how police officers have to make split-second decisions on whether to use lethal force -- to shoot a suspect. It was part of the Citizens Police Academy, a weekly course in law enforcement sponsored by the Cape Girardeau Police Department.

On a large screen in the police department's training room, a number of possible situations were played out on a simulator program called "Course of Fire." The equipment belongs to the Missouri Police Chiefs Association in Jefferson City, which lends it to participating departments.

It's easier to get officers to come in and shoot at this program, said Sgt. Rick Schmidt, because it's more realistic than shooting at a paper target that doesn't move -- or shoot back.

So while the department has the equipment, Schmidt lined up the academy participants, handed them a laser pistol, and let them react to various situations police can find themselves in.

"It's as close as you can get to real life without getting shot at," Schmidt told the group.

Each one who grasped the pistol was confronted with a suspect and the need to make a fast, safe decision.

"Sometimes when you tell them to stop, they will stop," Schmidt said. "Sometimes you shoot because you have no choice."

In some scenarios, a suspect complies with a verbal order. In others, he attacks. Some of the participants had no qualms shooting at a perpetrator.

Mark Seesing, a funeral director for Ford and Sons, said the experience was thought-provoking.

"My adrenaline was pumping, and it's only a game," he said.

In the back of his mind, Seesing said, he knew he might react differently in a real situation.

But Michel, who is self-employed, said, "If I was in danger there's no doubt I could pull the trigger."

In a real situation, Schmidt said, Cape Girardeau officers would shoot as a last resort. Any time an officer shoots a weapon, he said, he is put on administrative leave for three days while an investigation is done.

Police do not fire warning shots, nor do they shoot to kill. Police chief Steve Strong said the rule is shoot to stop.

"You shoot once," he said, "and if they don't stop, you shoot them again."

Before any officer gets to that point, Schmidt said, the officer tries to talk to a suspect. If that doesn't work and the suspect advances, the officer can use pepper spray or a Taser.

Officers also have at their disposal an expandable baton and a shotgun that shoots beanbags that will subdue a suspect without serious injury.

Or they can use "empty hand control," Schmidt said -- in other words, they can hit him.

Sometimes all a policeman has to do is draw his weapon. Schmidt said that in his 15 years on the police force, he has drawn his weapon but has never fired it at a person. He said he hopes he never has to.

Academy participants said they now realize what officers face on the street.

"There are so many things they have to watch for," Michel said. "At any moment they could be in a deadly situation. These guys are heroes."

lredeffer@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160