When the Sandwich Police Department moves into its new station in the near future, a new firearms training system will also be making the move.
Sgt. Bruce Lawrence, the senior firearms instructor for the Sandwich PD, says it’s a Meggitt FATS 100P, FATS an acronym for Firearm Training System; a virtual reality, high tech system that can put an officer in any number of scenarios with any number of devices.
"Not only is it just the firearm that we have options to," says Sgt. Lawrence, "this system also has a taser option, it has a flashlight option, it has a baton option. So in the future, as we move forward with this system, we're going to be purchasing these items so police officers, when they are confronted with a non-deadly force situation but it could be an option that they would want to use their taser, this system has the ability that you can draw a taser and the reaction on the screen is that which would happen in reality using your taser."
Lawrence says the virtual reality high-definition system is projected on a screen that is 14 feet by 10 feet making the various scenarios truly life-like.