 "Photo: Shelley Neuman/The Daily Texan")
In the Tuesday morning rain, outside a parked semitrailer at a training facility near Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, the Austin Police Department unveiled its plan for the next generation of marksmanship training.
Police Chief Art Acevedo explained the capabilities of the new Laser Shot Mobile Range to a small crowd that included City Manager Marc Ott.
“This will give our officers the ability to do what they do best: Serve and protect,” Acevedo said, referring to the cutting-edge shooting range housed in the parked trailer behind him.
The Laser Shot Mobile Range is manufactured by a private firm based in Houston that has done business with the U.S. Military and other law-enforcement agencies across the country.
The Laser Shot has a misleading name — it is a live-ammunition range, not a simulator or a video game. The range is housed within a semitrailer lined with bulletproof and soundproof material, enabling officers to fire live rounds without danger to the shooters or anyone outside.
What makes Laser Shot unique is the shooting environment it presents to officers.
Shooters face a large, rubberized bullet-catching screen onto which a live-action, filmed scenario is projected. Officers can respond to the scenarios in a variety of ways, using different weapons including Tasers and firearms.
“This will afford our officers the ability to work on critical thinking and judgment,” Acevedo said. “With what we have currently, all we’re practicing is marksmanship. Now officers will learn to use force in an appropriate, constitutionally sound way.”
Immediate feedback is available on how the officer performed using the heat signature left by the bullets.
“An advantage here is the realistic stress this creates,” said APD Sgt. Robert Richman. “It’s not the range. Using this system, officers might realize that, under stress, their muscle memory and motor skills aren’t what they thought they were.”
Besides the increased realism of shooting scenarios, police said another advantage to the Laser Shot’s range is its mobility. APD officers shooting practice once a year at the police academy, but it can be difficult for every officer to make it to the range.
“The police department has always struggled to get officers out annually to train,” Acevedo said. “Now, we can bring the training to them.”
Police plan for the mobile range move from precinct to precinct so that officers can train three to four times a year.
Ott expressed his support for the system at the event.
“It’s very, very impressive,” Ott said. “I’m committed to giving our officers all the resources they need, and this is a step in that direction.”
APD does not own a Laser Shot range, but a grant recently approved by the governor’s office should cover the $400,000 cost. Austin will be the first city in Texas to own a Laser Shot when it orders one in September.
The University of Texas Police Department, which is independent of APD, conducts firearms training on a fairly regular basis.
“We go out to the range in Bee Cave twice a year,” said Capt. Julie Gillespie, a firearms instructor for UTPD. “We also encourage all our officers to go to public ranges and practice there.”
Gillespie said that in her 24 years with UTPD, no officer in the department has ever had to discharge a weapon.
“But you always need to be ready,” she said.
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