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Show Y be co cop, you sEiootf like cj cop If you want to be a cop with the Vernal Ver-nal Police Department, you perform. Each year officers go through extensive exten-sive training : a minimum of 100 hours. Then, once a year, officers prove they should be on the force during annual recertification. This week has been the Vernal Police Department's annual recertification recer-tification testing. This type of continuing continu-ing trainingis necessary, according to Police Chief Robert Downard. Officers are the only people society allows to walk out on the street with a loaded weapon, has the authority to use deadly force, and not be threatened with the due process of law. Officers are tested in safety and adequate ade-quate handling of firearms, police practices and procedures, physical fitness, the use of force, law, and in the instruments of police work. Officers must show competency in every area. Officers who fail in any area are required re-quired to show competency within 30 days, or face termination. No one has ever been terminated for failing these tests, but three men in the past have been placed on probation. Each was able to show competency within the 30 day period. Downard said this year the police force passed with better marks than any has done in the past. No officer failed any portion of the testing this year. Downard attributes this to the on going training the Vernal Police Department Depart-ment requires and offers. Even though the state only requires 40 hours of training train-ing per year, Vernal requires 100. The extra training is paying off in better officers. Downard said. Downard said there has been a gradual evolution in police officers over the past 50 years. At one time a cop was little more than high priced security guard. Over the years, police work has come to be a very involved process. The most important tool a police officer has is his mind. He must not only be able to make decisions, but make correct decisions. A "Hogan's Alley" was implemented by the Vernal Police Department this year to help train officers in the decision deci-sion making process, and at the same time sharpen their shooting and emergency situation skills. This alley is meant to be a realistic training exercise. ex-ercise. Criticism has arisen in recent years that police officers firearm training has come only at a stationary target. This does not realistically train officers for live situations. Hogan's Alley provides that missing element. Sargeant Dave Madsen designed and supervised the construction of the alley. He said the department has wanted something like this for a long time, but the cost of a ready-built alley is about $20,000. At that price there is just no way the department could ever afford it. The Vernal Police Department's Depart-ment's annual training budget is only $15,000. Madsen said he finally just decided he could do it himself. So, with the help of fellow officers John Larsen and Trey Wade, they did it. The total cost of materials was about $2,000. Madsen, Larsen, and Wade donated their time along with several other department officers. They estimated total man hours they donated to the project was between 250 and 300. The unveiling of the alley was Wednesday. There are 176 linear feet of wall involved. It is about 50 feet long. There is one doorway and one room off the main alley. There is an area which juts in eight feet, creating a blind spot officers must contend with. There are 14 windows, 10 targets which move up and down at the dicre-tion dicre-tion of a controller, and two lateral targets which cross in front of the officers. of-ficers. Targets may be either friendly friend-ly or hostile, and officers must make the correct decision before shooting. To crisen the alley, other departments depart-ments were invited to a competition held Wednesday afternoon. Naples City Ci-ty Police, Roosevelt City Police, the Division of Wildlife Resources, the Utah Highway Patrol, and the Uintah County Sheriff's Department all showed show-ed up to join the Vernal City Police Department. A total of 160 points were possible. Each department formed teams of two men each. Each team was judged on the basis of shooting skills, as well as tactical procedures. Each hostile target must be shot before it has time to shoot the officer. , Each window must be cleared to see that a danger was not present. One officer of-ficer must cover while the other reloads his weapon, or while the other clears the room. Points are deducted for anything the officers fail to do properly. pro-perly. There is a certain amount of subjectivity in the scoring, but Madsen says, the scoring isn't really the purpose pur-pose of the alley. The purpose is to train officers. Chad Crosby and Dave Neil, with the Division of Wildlife Resources, won the competition with 157 points. D.W. Free and Chris Symms, with the Vernal P.D., took second se-cond with 147 points. Madsen said the scoring is valuable for one main reason. Because most officers of-ficers are competitive by nature, they will train harder to be better, and in so doing will become better officers in the process. Sgt. Madsen won the individual in-dividual competition, involving only the Vernal Police. Scoring in the individual in-dividual competition was different. Accuracy was judged only as to hitting in the "kill" zone. Points were taken off only if the bullets did not fill in that zone. Tactical points were handled much the same way as in the team competition. Madsen and Scott Gudmundsen both cleared the alley without error, but Madsen's time was one minute 19 seconds, three seconds faster than that of Gudmundsen. Hogan's Alley is completely portable. por-table. Madsen said he expects to be able to put it up in about 3 hours once all the bugs are worked out. He said the department intends to use the alley three or four times a year for training. It an be assembled, used and taken down in one day. He said another use the department is considering is using it for community fund-raising projects Continued on page 2 Cops... Continued from page 1 such as the Fourth of July celebration. Dart guns would be used, and people would pay the same as they do at amusement park's. Chief Downard said the department expects to make no money from it, but it may be able to help raise money for some worthy causes. Hogan's Alley was not scored as part of the officers overall recertification this year because Madsen said they still have to work out a more objective way of scoring. However, they intend to make the alley a regular training mechanism in the future. Madsen said what they are looking for when they built it was the most cost effective training apparatus. He said the $2,000 will soon be recouped in better trained train-ed officers. Madsen said most explosive situations situa-tions officers are involved in happen in 2'2 to 3 seconds and happen only 7 to 12 feet away. An officer doesn't have time to think about what he must do, he must do it. If he stops to contemplate, con-template, he's dead. The alley provides pro-vides officers that real life situation without actually being there, making him better prepared if the real life situation should ever arise. One of the best things about the alley, said officer Trey Wade, is that it can be changed in a variety of ways. Officers will never go through it knowing what to expect, niK'h )!' :i::..- .... , i. ;. |