East Kentucky sheriff's department using simulation program to teach to help in crisis situations

The Floyd County Sheriff’s Department is holding its annual training to prepare the community to respond to emergencies.

The Multiple Interactive Learning Objective or MILO system is on loan from the Kentucky Association of Counties for the next two weeks. This is used to train both police officers and civilians how to handle real life emergency situations, using simulations.

Floyd County Deputy Randy Powers teaches the program. He said these situations are a matter of when, not if.

“It can always happen, no matter where you think it can't, it can. So, if I can get you a little bit, little bit of knowledge, a little bit of help, to help you to understand a situation and maybe get you out of that situation, I'll do what I can.”

The training helps people deescalate situations from active shooters to conversational confrontations. Powers' former teaching partner was Deputy William Petry who was killed in an ambush in 2022.

Powers said his partner's memory makes want to do more.

“It pushed me more and more. Petry and I would always talk, class would be over and we'd go over things we did, things we said, and he said he always wanted to teach this class and make it better and better.”

This is the sixth year the Floyd County Sheriff's Department has hosted this training. It opened it to civilians four years ago when church groups expressed interested in people being trained.

The Floyd County Sheriff's office will be be running these trainings starting today and going until August 15th. Anyone interested in participating can contact the sheriff's office.

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