Playing cops ... and robbers

It's a routine traffic stop on a hot, sunny Saturday morning. But a moment of inattention is about to cost a life.The police officer making the stop doesn't see the handgun on the dashboard of the white SUV – nor does he notice that the passenger in the rear seat is holding another gun in his lap. As he steps past him to talk to the driver, the passenger rolls his window down, points the weapon at his head and shoots."Bang! Bang! Bang!" he shouts.Fortunately, the "gunman" is a volunteer, the "gun" is an AirSoft pellet gun and the "police officer" is an academy recruit undergoing Level Two training in Sierra College's Peace Officer Standards and Training modular academy.Saturday was the last of three days of role-playing various scenarios before the recruits attending this segment of the modular academy graduate today. One day involved crimes in progress, the second day featured building searches and the third day covered traffic stops.Saturday, the two instructors walking the recruits through the sometimes nerve-wracking scenarios were Rocklin Police Sgt. Terry Roide and Lincoln Police Chief Brian Vizzusi. Vizzusi has been an instructor at Sierra College for 10 years."I have a passion for teaching," he said. "I really enjoy interacting with people who want to get involved in the profession. It keeps me energized and excited about being in law enforcement."The modular academy is particularly well-suited to older students who might be seeking a career change, Vizzusi said, since classes are held on weekends and evenings.The POST Academy has three levels; Level Two graduates are eligible for hire as reserve police officers, meaning they can ride along as backup to regular full-time police officers.Level One is not offered at Sierra College, but is taught at Yuba College. Level One graduates have completed the basic academy.The role-playing that academy recruits go through help them "practice" before being put in the real world of policing, Vizzusi said."The scenarios really put students in unique position where they have to react to situations in real time," he said. "They take all the information they've learned thus far — the criminal law side, the officer safety side, the use of force — and they have to put it together in a practical situation. They have to make decisions; we try to make it as realistic as possible."Saturday, several Lincoln volunteers showed up to help flesh out the scenarios, including Larry Whittaker and his wife, Nancy, Sun City Lincoln Hills residents.Larry Whittaker played the part of the gunman in the shooting scenario.On the second attempt at the same scenario, the recruits didn't make the same mistake – but made others. The recruit saw the gun in the back seat and quickly retreated to the police car, where he and his fellow trainee crouched, guns drawn, attempting to get the passengers and driver out of the car.Vizzusi stopped the action and, to demonstrate how to safely handle the situation, got behind the wheel of the police vehicle and issued orders through the PA system."Get into the habit of using the PA," he told the trainees. "It's going to be hard for them to hear you over the road noise and the engine noise. Just take it real slow and real simple."Earlier that morning, the Whittakers acted out a domestic violence incident."Nancy beat up on me," Larry Whittaker joked. "She was awful."The scenario involved a traffic stop where both parties were confrontational."It was really confusing," Larry Whittaker said. "She was slapping me and I was belligerent. I kept getting in (the officer's) face, but he didn't do anything. They were supposed to control the situation."Eventually, Nancy Whittaker was handcuffed."I confessed, you see," she said, laughing. "They handcuffed me. It was cute."Vizzusi said the whole point of the exercise is to get the recruits to "act appropriately and use the appropriate tactics and skills – that's the goal. Lives are at stake and so we take it very seriously."Sometimes they over-react, sometimes they under-react," he said. "We're trying to get them to the point where they don't do either."Later in the morning, Vizzusi gathered the volunteers to discuss the next scenario."Johnny just got out of Juvenile Hall and he's pissed off," he told them before turning to the teen who was to play Johnny."You're yelling and screaming at the officer," he said. "If he doesn't get control of the situation, I want you to push him and I want you to run. Don't run fast – this is not a race."Vizzusi had more instructions for Larry Whittaker, who was to play the parent."You're yelling, you're screaming, you're hostile," he said. "You stay in the car.""I can't get out and beat on him?" Whittaker joked.As the scenario played out, the teen ran a short distance before lobbing a donut at the officers."That's a capital offense!" one recruit called out amid the laughter.Eventually, three recruits tackled the teen and got him in handcuffs, to a round of applause.Lincoln Community Service Officer Paul Tyler and his wife, Ginger, were among the volunteers Saturday. They volunteered in one scenario where they had gotten pulled over for speeding and were angry."They were supposed to defuse the situation," Paul Tyler said. "He (the recruit) was a little nervous.""He was ignoring what we were saying," Ginger Tyler said, adding that it was eye-opening to understand all the ramifications of a situation from a police officer's point of view."Just the logistics of approaching a car," she said. " Making sure they're behind you — it makes it harder to be belligerent, because you can't see them."The last scenario of the morning before the trainees broke for lunch involved a traffic stop where drugs are suspected. Everything becomes a teachable moment here, with Vizzusi taking the opportunity to discuss how the trainees should handle getting people out of a vehicle and questioning them.The recruits were fully aware of the value of role-playing such scenarios in their training."This is the most important thing," said Alex Rokatilov. "You actually get to see what's going on, what you are going to do in that split second." Fellow recruit Peter Gutsu agreed."It teaches you a lot more," he said. "If you're not experiencing it, it's different. When you're on the side (watching), it seems like a game, but when you're in (the role play), your heart starts pumping.""It's a lot of adrenaline," Rokatilov said."In class, they'll tell you and you remember it verbatim, but once you're in it, it's completely different," Gutsu said.For more information on the modular academy, call Nick Willick, Sierra College Administration of Justice coordinator, at 781-6273.