An Inside Look at the Denver Police Department - 5280 | The Denver Magazine
Pulling the trigger was almost too easy. I stared down the barrel, lined up my shot, and psst, psst. I couldn’t make out exactly what was happening, as his limbs were tangled with a police officer’s in something like a lover’s embrace. I’m a taxpayer taking a class in the Denver Police Department’s Citizens’ Police Academy, a multiweek course designed to better acquaint the public with law enforcement’s inner workings. On this night, I stood before the Range 3000, the DPD’s shooting simulator, and held a red plastic toy gun fitted with a laser beam that interacts with the life-size screen, on which recorded actors simulate real-life situations police face every... The officers want us to see how difficult their jobs are, how rapidly things can develop—or deteriorate—and how muddled, imperfect, and frustrating it can be to wear the badge. Before me, one student correctly identified a shooter in a crowded bar, but another mistakenly took down an innocent man. On the screen, I find a guy in an auto shop during what may be a robbery in progress. The scenarios are pseudo-interactive, meaning the playback allows time for me to yell stereotypical police commands. Denver Police. ) Sometimes the actors stop. This one doesn’t, and I watch, stunned, as he levels a gun at my face. The instructor yells at me to shoot—so I do. A box flashes on the screen: “You have used lethal force. Source: www.5280.com
