Police training to go digital with new simulator

Armed with a $750,000 grant, the Kalispell Police Department is teaming up with Northwest Shooter to install a digital training simulator and outfit a new 50-yard rifle and pistol range there.

“I think the Flathead Valley is getting a tremendous asset,” Chief Police Nasset said.

The arrangement was approved by the City Council on Monday.

Both the simulator and the new tactical shooting range are meant to provide better training opportunities for local law enforcement agencies.

The simulator essentially will be a virtual reality training program run in a 24- by 24- by 10-foot room that houses its speakers and screens.

The VirTra system being considered — available for sale only to law enforcement and military agencies — gives the officers inside a 300-degree field of view with a realistic and highly interactive environment.

“It’s kind of the ultimate decision-making training,” Nasset said.

The officer can move and interact with simulated people, and use a handgun, rifle, shotgun, Taser, pepper spray or even flashlight to deal with situations and suspects.

An instructor on a computer outside can alter the simulator’s dozens of programmed scenarios on the fly and escalate, resolve or complicate situations based on the officer’s decisions and actions.

“You get in there and you believe you’re in a real-life situation,” Nasset said. “You get the sweaty palms, the increased heart rate. And that’s exactly what we’re looking for, to put them in that situation where they have to make [use of force] decisions.”

The training simulator will cost about $100,000. It will be installed in an existing building at Northwest Shooter, which is owned by Bob Hughes, and it should be up and running in 60 to 90 days. The simulator may be made available to the public on a limited basis if allowed by VirTra, Nasset said.

The rest of the federal grant will be used to outfit a 50-yard pistol and rifle range Hughes has agreed to donate land and construct a building for. The money will pay to install ballistic walls, acoustic paneling, a bullet trap, an air filtration system and movable remote-control targets.

The new range will be open commercially to the public in addition to Northwest Shooter’s existing 25-yard pistol range north of Kalispell on U.S. 2.

It should be open by next June.

Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.