For over half a decade, the Waynesburg University Criminal Justice Department has used simulators, courtesy of Laser Shot. This past Tuesday, the university held a press conference to announce and demonstrate its new Laser Shot Firearm Training Simulator.

Before the simulation began, Vice President for Institutional Advancement and University Relations Stacey Brodak introduced the night’s four speakers. The speakers then gave remarks, starting with university President Douglas Lee and ending with Criminal Justice Department Chairperson Adam Jack, with Scott Goodhart, senior accounting executive at Laser Shot, and Louis Wieres, supervisory special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, speaking in between. In Lee’s speech, he noted that the simulator was paid for by the recently announced grant from the Richard K. Mellon foundation.

Laser Shot, based out of Houston, Texas, was founded in 1999, but didn’t get involved in the law enforcement, military arena until the late 2000s. Since then, it’s assisted organizations from the U.S. Army, down to the high school and college levels.

The Sim Range system purchased by Waynesburg University includes more than 900 live video scenarios, with actors included, and these scenarios have multiple outcomes.

According to Jack, having a press conference to announce an upgrade isn’t a normal occurrence for the Criminal Justice Department, but said that it was done in this instance so that the department’s partners could take part.

“This is the first [press conference] we’ve done with this type of tool, only because we have so many community partners that are going to use it,” Jack said. “We wanted to invite them today because we wanted to be able to include them in a great training, as well as show them the types of things that we can do here for them at the house.”

Jack, who has been at Waynesburg since 2011, stressed the importance of simulators to those in
attendance.

“This is the centerpiece of what we do,” Jack told the audience. “We are teaching the next generation of law enforcement professionals the use of force continuum from their freshman year through their senior year.”

Jack explained that criminal justice students won’t have to wait long to get involved with the simulations.

“We have 41 freshmen this year in the program, all 41 have used this system,” he said. “So, it’s not something you have to wait until the end of your career to take part in.”

Jack said that sophomore students will spend four to five weeks working with use-of-force scenarios that the simulation provides, while the upperclassmen are taking an advanced
use-of-force class.

Jack told those in attendance that nearly all of the faculty in the Criminal Justice Department come from a professional background, and that is a primary reason for the exercises being available.

“They come from sheriff’s departments and probation and parole offices, and federal agencies that come here and teach our students,” Jack said. “We’re very proud of the professional staff we have, not only in our undergraduate program in criminal justice administration, but also our master’s program in criminal investigation—one of the very few criminal investigation master’s degrees in the country.”

For Godart, being able to take an intense situation and give it multiple outcomes is a significant aspect that the simulator provides.

“Sometimes you don’t get the same level of acting that you might get from each individual from time to time,” Godart told the audience. “On this system, we can take the same scenario, bring it to multiple directions, allowing the instructors here to really reinforce the use-of-force continuum that’s out there today and the problems that our current law enforcers actually face in the field that the majority of people do not get a chance to really see on a day-to-day basis.”

After Jack finished speaking, James Tanda, director of Security Operations and Emergency Management and instructor of criminal justice, showed examples of possible scenarios, acting as a law enforcement officer.

Overall, Jack feels fortunate that students in the department will be able to experience real-life situations through the simulator, and said that not a lot of programs have that opportunity.

“Over the years I’ve been here, most employers when they call, they want to know if we’ve seen these students in stressful situations and if we think they can handle stressful situations,” said Jack. “Our program here, we’re fortunately one of the one ones that are able to really tell those people, ‘yes, we have seen them in stressful situations, and this is how they respond.’”