Meriden, CT — Before ever stepping foot on patrol, recruits from local police departments and the Connecticut State Police spend countless hours working through simulated incidents in the State Police Academy’s Milo Simulator.
For the past eight years, the Milo Simulator has allowed recruits to practice their communication and reaction skills in a controlled environment with the goal of de-escalating every scenario they encounter.
Recruits walk into a darkened room with three large screens filling their field of view. In place of their duty pistol, taser, and flashlight, they are equipped with mock versions connected to the simulator through infrared lasers. As the simulation begins, a dispatch narrative appears on the screen, quickly transitioning to the incident unfolding, with real actors on the screens around them. The recruits actually speak to the individuals on the screens, allowing a watching instructor to direct the simulation with dozens of options available on a control screen to reflect their decisions.
With dozens of base scenarios and the options within, the Milo Simulator makes hundreds of incident variations available, ranging from traffic stops to domestics to school threats. This critical training allows recruits to experience scenarios before they encounter them in the real world, training reaction time, communication skills, and critical thinking with the ultimate goal of de-escalating the situation wherever possible.
In the real world de-escelation isn’t always possible, Sergeant Luke Davis explained, “[The Milo Simulator] is an increadibly benefitial training simulation because it’s showing the the potential of a real-life circumstance and how quickly a situation can change for the worse and having that extra skillset for training and making a split second decition in a circumstance where it could come down to life or death is increadibly crucial to our training as well as continued training.” When the simulations turn to someone’s life being directly threatened, trainees have the ability to handle it with various tools, ensuring they don’t end up with only one line of thinking. Troopers explained that a common saying within the academy is “your mind will never go where it hasn’t been before.” Being able to run through hundreds of dynamic scenarios allows trainees’ minds to have a reference point for their own actions and reaction times when a critical situation occurs in the field.
While it is impossible to know the outcome of any incident had different actions been taken, Troopers believe these simulations are vital to allowing them to have as much realistic training as possible before going on patrol.