KANNAPOLIS — This week’s Kannapolis Police Citizen’s Academy was the most ardent eye-opener so far, and I cannot encourage people enough to take advantage of classes offered by their local departments in order to get this direct understanding of what police officers go through daily.

This week, we traveled to Rowan-Cabarrus Community College in Concord to the Tactical Training building and one of the campus’ parking lots, where we got first-hand experience in the life of an officer on the road.

Part of the day, we got behind the wheel of cruisers and tackled driving skills. We got a bit of a break, because officers get a 10-foot span to maneuver an 8-foot wide cruiser, but they gave us 14 feet. To explain the control they have to maintain over the vehicle, for instance in a curve, they have to maintain a minimum speed of 25 mph at all times and stay inside the cones. If you think that sounds slow, try it on a back stretch of road where you know it’s safe. It is not easy.

We didn’t have to keep that speed up, thankfully. In fact, we were not constrained to meet any of the requirements officers have to, but it was a challenge nonetheless. And it got everyone’s adrenaline up, so it became clear how an officer might feel trying to catch someone who has committed a crime and knowing that even at the end of the chase, the elevated stress isn’t over.

And that came next.

The training officers work throughout the year to set up scenarios for training, for both new and experienced officers, to sharpen and hone skills and to expose officers to new and different situations.

In truth, they keep up with YouTube videos of recent incidents that perhaps their department has not yet faced, but could any day, and they work to expose officers to the unexpected, so they can be at least somewhat prepared.

We were all given a chance to fire a simulation gun that is a full replica of the Glock 40 that the department currently uses, and the rounds were essentially paint projectiles. The tips contained orange-colored soap that would wash out, but if you got hit with one, they hurt.

“They won’t cause serious injury but there is some pain that comes with making a bad decision,” said Captain Christopher Fisher, who explained how the scenarios would work.

Lt. Travis Kiser was the officer who explained to each of us the first scenario, after we each suited up in a mask, throat protector and groin cover to keep any projectiles from hitting sensitive places. We were taken to a cruiser and Lt. Kiser explained we would be making a traffic stop. The car in front of us had an expired registration, and we needed to approach the window, ask the driver for their license and registration, make sure it was all valid, then we would come back to the cruiser to decide if we would issue a verbal warning or a written citation.

Trouble is, we never got to the window.

The minute we got out of the cruiser, the driver of the car was out and coming at us, shouting about why were we harassing him.

It was incredibly startling and unnerving, and not at all what we were expecting. Each of us reacted differently, but the goal was to help us understand that even though it was disconcerting, we needed to be able to maintain control of the situation, (I did not, I backed up and the officer role-playing the driver would have stolen my cruiser, to my immense chagrin), and if we could recognize that it was not a deadly force instance (one in our class actually shot the driver, so you can see how intense the situation can get in no time at all).

It’s not a deadly force situation. The driver had no weapon, he was just belligerent, but it made it starkly clear why officers can be somewhat curt, if professional, when they make a traffic stop. They have no idea what they are walking up on, or just getting out of the car to face.

In the next scenario, we were told that an employer had called and asked for an officer to come help escort an employee out that was getting fired. The employer was firing the person and concerned the employee was going to resist. And boy did he. The minute we walked in, he was arguing about not wanting to leave, and a weapon was visible on his waistband, and if you don’t think my heart rate went through the roof, guess again. I knew immediately things were not going to go well. In very short order, he pulled the gun out and pointed it at his “boss” and made it clear he was going to shoot him. So I shot him instead.

Now, let’s see how much Monday morning quarter backing we get here. Let me make it very clear, there was no de-escalation. He was determined, and no talking was working. He was going to pull the trigger.

The point they were making with us is when it comes to saving someone else’s life, deadly force is not only allowed, it’s expected.

I have always wondered if I could pull the trigger in that situation. The idea of taking someone’s life has never been something I thought I could do. But in that moment, knowing if I didn’t act, an innocent, unarmed, unprepared person would die, I felt I had no choice. But I did still hesitate for one second, and that could have been one second too long in reality.

It all happened in seconds, and officers are called, over and over, to make split second decisions in moments just like that.

Again and again in our debriefing, we said “it happened so fast,” and that was the point the trainers were making. It doesn’t happen every day, no, but officers are put in situations frequently where they have to make split second decisions and their training has to kick in, because if they hesitate at all, innocent lives can be lost.

It’s easy to sit back and judge when you’ve seen a five-second video or when you don’t really understand the immediacy and the chaos in a situation where an officer fires their gun. And yes, no doubt, there are, once in a while, moments when even an officer makes a bad decision. But it isn’t often, and if we are the boss who has an angry employee pointing a gun at us, we will be forever grateful for the officer who does not hesitate.

Officers also have to bear in mind that whatever they do, they are going to have to justify in court. Which means their training has to be solid, the department has to show they have trained an officer correctly and fully and the officer has to be able to explain, in detail, their thought process and why they made the choice they made. Which means in a very heated, intense and fast moment they need to be able to articulate their thought process.

After each of us went through the scenarios, they asked us “what happened, why did you do what you did?” And it was hard to put it into words. Most of us reacted on instinct, but instinct doesn’t stand up in court.

“Part of the purpose of this program is the hope that you will all be ambassadors,” said Chief Terry Spry. “When you are out and people start talking and you know now that they are wrong, that you will say ‘hey, pump the brakes, that’s not right.'” And I think every one of us in the class Saturday would now willingly step up and say that from first-hand experience we know making a split-second decision is not easy.

And to imagine the roller coaster officers go through every shift, when the call raises the adrenaline and heart rate, then that call is over and your body has to adjust and absorb that, only to have another call an hour later that repeats the cycle, is exhausting. When each scenario ended, I was shaking and sweating from the adrenaline and the sheer intensity. It took me the rest of the weekend to come down from the adrenaline kick.

As much as I have always understood what officers do and as much as I have always respected their jobs, this weekend took my understanding to a whole new level.

So as noted, if your local department offers you a chance to get a bird’s eye view, take it. If you live in Kannapolis, sign up for the academy. And the next time an officer stops you for whatever reason, please remember, he has no idea who you are or what he, or she, is walking up to, and be courteous. Both of you want to go home safely at the end of the day.