By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
Two new simulators at the Missouri Western Law Enforcement Academy will help future law enforcement officers learn in new and advanced ways.
A ribbon cutting ceremony was held in a new training suite at the law enforcement academy for a MILO simulator, which teaches decision making, and a new driving simulator.
Incoming Academy Commander Lonnie Bishop says the MILO simulator will help simulate different scenarios such as a suspect complying or not complying.
"We can introduce the cadet to that and it's going to be in an environment that's controlled," Bishop tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. "And let's say they go through this first scenario, and they don't do so well, we can go back, and we can play back and say here you could have made a different choice and talk about it and help them learn from it, not just throw them in a simulator and say hey pass this or not."
Bishop uses the new driving simulator as an example of how these simulators will enhance the learning experience.
"I can take this out and I can show a student how to drive on here and introduce different aspects of that, like bad weather like we showed you earlier, and then what I can do is I can get the student and say hey listen your cars going to act this way, or maybe when you park and approach a suspect you should park this way," Bishop explains. "We can take that and then we can say ok remember in the simulator you did this; ok we're going to put you in a car and now we want you to try it out."
Bishop says the driving simulator also hooks up to the new MILO simulator, giving cadets the idea of arriving on scene at a crime and having to make decisions.
Bishop says it's not common to have these simulators at academies
"There are other academies with them, as far as in the state of Missouri I don't know how many there are, I just know that we're one of the only ones that has the driving simulator and the MILO range as well," Bishop says.
And Bishop can only see these simulator experiences expanding
"I think that we're going to expand, I think that we're going to be able to provide other things for other organizations of the community," Bishop says.
Bishop says the simulators were a part of former Commander the late Joseph King's vision to enhance the learning opportunities for cadets at the academy.
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