TROY, Mich. – Forget the days of relying on a shooting range -- police training is going high-tech in the present day.
Officers are getting real experience, so if one day a gunman shows up at a school or business, they know how to react quickly, save lives and avoid mistakes.
Local 4 Defender Karen Drew spent a day with Troy police officers to see how the training makes a difference.
From the exterior, the training facility looks like a warehouse, but inside Close Quarters Technical is so much more.
"It's a 300-degree simulator that we put students through from law enforcement to private sector to military for threat recognition, decision-making capabilities and high-stress situations," said Al Dustan, CEO of Close Quarters Technical.
Officers at the Troy Police Department go through the training exercise four times a year in eight-hour shifts.
In one scenario, a woman gets out of her car and starts to grab for something in her purse. In another scenario, police respond to a loud and disorderly party. Another is the office shooting with a gunman on the loose.
Many officers have never experienced situations like these, so it gives them hands-on experience to learn from. It's much closer to a real-life scenario than practicing at a shooting range.
Karen tried the simulator, and her scenario was to go hallway to hallway with a school shooter on the loose.
You can watch Karen's run on the simulator and see many more examples of how police use it in the video posted above.