Sayre, OK — Western Technology Center in Sayre has purchased a high-tech training simulator that local law enforcement can use for both driving and scenario-based response, according to Beckham County Sheriff Derek Manning.
Manning said reserve deputy John Currid, who serves as WTC’s criminal justice instructor, alerted the sheriff’s office that the system would be available to agencies in the region and asked if the department wanted to certify an instructor. During his weekly appearance on The Early Morning Show on 96.5 KECO, Manning said one of his undersheriffs completed the instructor course last week.
“It’s a very cool deal,” Manning said. “It’s kind of a surround type situation with a lot of technology that’s pretty new and gives you the ability to adjust scenarios. You can even create your own scenarios that are specific to your geography and your community and your location and that sort of thing and types of scenarios that your officers have run into or they might expect to run into that can be very specific to your law enforcement organization. But it also comes preloaded with a lot of other scenarios.”
The system supports both driving and use-of-force training, allowing deputies and officers to run an emergency response, elevate stress and heart rate, then transition straight into an unfolding call.
“So you can actually, I was talking to my undersheriff the other day after he got through the training, he said you can actually go to the situation in emergency response mode,” Manning said. “So go through all that, get your heart rate up and then run over to where the actual simulator for the situation is, the scenario.”
Manning said the tool is designed for any point on the force continuum, from conversation-only encounters to less-lethal options to deadly-force incidents, reinforcing decision-making under pressure.
“We call it, a lot of people call it a shooting simulator, but that’s actually, it’s actually much more than that because it’s any type of scenario simulator,” he said. “So you don’t know when you get there, just like in real life, whether it’s going to be a shooting scenario or if it’s going to be a less lethal scenario or whether it’s going to be just a talk scenario where you can use conversation and bring the scenario down to a level where you’re just making an arrest or resolve the scenario without any force.”
The sheriff said the realism and unpredictability aim to build better habits.
“So it can be any range on the force continuum, as they used to call it, and you have to be prepared for whatever,” Manning said. “So it trains you to think like that instead of just running up knowing, hey, I’m going to be in a shooting scenario because you never know that, that’s not real life. So this is a much more effective training.”
WTC’s simulator is expected to be used by regional law enforcement as scheduling allows, with scenarios tailored to local streets, landmarks, and common call types. Agencies can work with Currid and certified instructors to build custom modules and refresh existing ones.
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