NAACP leaders try shooting simulator at Morris Police Academy

PARSIPPANY Members of the NAACP New Jersey State Conference joined police chiefs and prosecutors from throughout New Jersey on Wednesday for some hands-on training and a discussion of the challenges police face while entering potentially dangerous situations.

The meeting took place at the state-of-the-art firearms training simulator installed last year at the Morris County Public Safety Training Academy. The $287,000 simulator offers a 300-degree video view of scenarios where an officer has to assess potentially dangerous suspects, armed with a handgun that registers on the screen when fired.

Normally, the simulator is used by law-enforcement officers in training or already in the field. But as part of this exercise — which continued an ongoing "Fair and Impartial Policing" dialogue between the NAACP and the New Jersey State Association of Police Chiefs in conjunction with the  Office of the Attorney General — several NAACP members took their turn in the simulator.

"We're working closely with the Attorney General's Office and the chiefs of police in regards to training and community-police relations," said Richard Smith, president of the NAACP New Jersey Conference. "At the end of the day, my organization has to build relationships. We had training last Thursday on implicit bias and racial profiling. We had over 200 law-enforcement officers in the room in the Princeton Westin Hotel. Just trying to get folks to think in a different way. We all have implicit bias. We all have some type of discriminatory characteristic. So we have to realize that if that is the case, then how do we deal with it?"

Smith, a retired corrections officer, took a "shot" from a simulated aggressor with a shotgun but managed to shoot back and hit his target.

"As a citizen, it gives you an appreciation of the actual lack of time that the officers have to react," said R. Todd Edwards of Brigantine, political action chairman for the state NAACP after his turn in the simulator, which resulted in him being "shot" by a perpetrator when he could not remove his gun from the holster."It was a definite eye-opener, I'll tell you that. The simulation is very real. Real real. It happens so fast."

Edwards, a funeral director by trade, said the NAACP's work with the chiefs association is paying dividends.

"We get calls initially when police shootings go on," he said. "We want to know both hands. We don't want to be reactionary. If we have the opportunity to put ourselves in the shoes of the officers, why not? More civilians need to come through this training so they can see what the officers actually go through. Anyone has the opportunity to do this, they need to do it."

Followup discussions included debriefing by academy trainers and the chiefs in the room, including Mount Olive's Mark Spitzer and Denville's Christopher Wagner, who serves as president of the chief's association. All those who entered the simulator were asked about what they saw, what they were thinking and to recount what they did, including how many bullets they fired.

Ronald Susswein, New Jersey assistant attorney general for the Division of Criminal Justice,  led discussions about whether the shots they fired were justified given what they observed and what transpired. Michael Van Allen, Morris County NAACP chairman for criminal justice and a trustee of County College of Morris, wondered aloud if the shots he fired in his simulation were justified.

"Right now you have the benefit of reviewing it on video," Susswein said. "Right now there are many cases that go on that there is not a video that demonstrates it, and a police officer describing what he saw and trying to justify it, and having other pieces that come into it that may or may not reinforce what actually happened."

Wagner stressed that in most cases, body cameras worn by officers will help clear an officer involved in a justified shooting because, armed or otherwise, the actions of the suspect may clearly indicate a threat that might not otherwise be apparent without seeing what happened.

"They don't shoot to kill," he said. "They shoot to stop the threat. ... You saw how much time you have to make those decisions. This isn't James Bond shooting the trigger finger of a female assassin to save her life."

"Excellent program," said Morris County Prosecutor Fredric Knapp. "The people who participated in the exercise could understand what a police officer has to go through. Just that experience alone was worth a tremendous amount."

"I'm proud we're here, proud of all of us, our association, your association, that we're together," Wagner said. "My hope is that we can do this again."

Staff Writer William Westhoven: 973-917-9242; wwesthoven@GannettNJ.com.