On police cruiser trainers, everyone's a bad driver

MERIDEN, Conn. -- The drivers in Center City are idiots. They cross double yellow lines, ride curbs and run stop signs. Many just ignore Trooper Roger Beaupre when he activates his cruiser's flashing lights. Others panic and brake in mid-intersection.

Beaupre is tailing a drunken driver -- Center City is full of them -- but looks away for a moment. He broadsides a school bus.

Game over. Time to hit reset and put the police cruiser back on the outskirts of town.

The $100,000 simulator that Beaupre sampled as the Connecticut State Police recently unveiled a pair is law enforcement's answer to the flight simulator, a decades-old tech tool designed to save lives.

Unlike the limited simulators used in driver-education courses, these hopped-up machines feel real, allowing officers to train for such white-knuckle tasks as high-speed pursuits without wearing down real cruisers.

Mimicking the feel of police cruisers, they can display more than 100 scenarios. They make turning in snow difficult, even replicate the afternoon glare on the windshield. Plasma screens and high-speed graphic cards allow passing cars to move from the driver's-side window to the windshield view without pixillation or distortion.

While few police departments can afford the machines in these times of budget crisis, federal grants have enabled some purchases. Only about 150 of the nation's more than 13,000 police departments have simulators.

Advanced technology

The technology is so advanced, programmers at General Electric Driver Development say they have replicated the dynamics of the Pursuit Immobilization Technique -- a dangerous chase maneuver in which an officer bumps a fleeing car hard enough to send it off the road, without losing control of the police cruiser.

Practicing the PIT on the street is not only risky, but expensive. It requires a specially designed track and two cars that can be destroyed. Until recently, replicating the maneuver's many variables in a digital environment was impossible.

GE's latest simulator, which hit the market last month, incorporates vehicle-specific data, so different models of cars respond distinctively in different situations.

"Learning retention increases with a more real environment," said Dave Dolan, a spokesman for General Electric, one of three major driving simulator manufacturers.

And the results can be measured.

Philadelphia police officers were involved in 826 accidents in 1998. The next year they began training recruits on a simulator by Binghamton, N.Y.-based Doron Precision Systems. Last year, there were 655 accidents -- a 21 percent drop in four years -- according to Cpl. Jeff Sidorski.

More than 1,000 Philadelphia officers have been trained in the simulators, and officers involved in multiple accidents are sent back for more training.

Mistakes made in the simulator can be reviewed and analyzed, and scenarios repeated. An entire academy class, even a whole department, can be placed behind the wheel in an identical situation.

Eighteen months ago the Topeka, Kan., police department spent $95,000 in forfeiture money on a computer simulator to retrain officers who had shown poor driving habits.

"None of them are back," said Sgt. Darin Scott, an instructor at Topeka's police academy. "Before, we had officers we had to see a couple of times."

The companies that build the equipment couldn't ask for better testimonials.

FAAC Inc., a longtime military supplier of combat simulators based in Ann Arbor, Mich., began marketing systems for police about three years ago and has invested millions in police programs, said service manager Terry Cutler.

The former Nevada County, Calif., deputy sheriff says more training is being required all the time.

"It's going to be some poor agency that takes a big hit in an expensive lawsuit because they didn't make the investment in training," said Cutler.

FAAC's simulators are in fewer than a dozen departments. GE has contracts with nearly 40 departments, and Doron officials say they have more than 100 simulators in police departments around the world.

Police believe the technology will be more likely to catch on as younger officers -- raised on video games and home computers -- join the force and take over training.

Connecticut State Police Lt. Mark Coleman, the commandant in charge of training, says it is no coincidence high school students in the junior police academy will be the first to train on the state's machines.

"We train to the future," he said, "not to the past."