On my department we qualify every quarter. The basic qualification course is 250 rounds at various ranges. No course is ever the same. Numerous and stressful situations are set up and officers have to respond as individuals and as teams. To keep it difficult only the individual or team and the Range Master are allowed on the range. This prevents others from doping out the event and preplanning.
We qualify with our shotguns and AR’s twice a year. Again, real life situations are encountered and on average 50 rounds of 00 and 200 rounds of .223 are expended. Once a year we spend the entire day on the range busting clay birds with our shotguns on a skeet range in the morning and engaging targets out to 500 yards with the AR’s in the afternoon.
We have also now incorporated what is called “Active Shooter” training here in California. This training has been developed for the street officer to respond as a team in the event of a school campus shooting incident. We do not wait for a SWAT team anymore in this type of incident. The patrol team immediately forms up and goes in and terminates the problem.
For Active Shooter training we are using “Simunitons” and actual school campuses in the area. One of the instructors is the bad guy and the team must negotiate different scenarios. I would estimate that each officer would expend about 30 rounds during this training.
There are also 4-hour training periods once a year on the “Force Options Simulator.” This is basically a projected incident on a screen and the officer must respond to each incident appropriately.
We qualify with our shotguns and AR’s twice a year. Again, real life situations are encountered and on average 50 rounds of 00 and 200 rounds of .223 are expended. Once a year we spend the entire day on the range busting clay birds with our shotguns on a skeet range in the morning and engaging targets out to 500 yards with the AR’s in the afternoon.
We have also now incorporated what is called “Active Shooter” training here in California. This training has been developed for the street officer to respond as a team in the event of a school campus shooting incident. We do not wait for a SWAT team anymore in this type of incident. The patrol team immediately forms up and goes in and terminates the problem.
For Active Shooter training we are using “Simunitons” and actual school campuses in the area. One of the instructors is the bad guy and the team must negotiate different scenarios. I would estimate that each officer would expend about 30 rounds during this training.
There are also 4-hour training periods once a year on the “Force Options Simulator.” This is basically a projected incident on a screen and the officer must respond to each incident appropriately.