The Goldendale City Council meeting last night was quick and quiet. One nice piece of news came from Police Chief Mike Smith:
“We have a screen we project a scenario on. So like it’s shoot or don’t shoot scenarios for use of force, which is required by the state to do some training on. So this way we don’t have to send guys out, we can do it all in-house; we can also train the county. There’s like 100 different scenarios, where you can communicate with the person on the video. You do the right things, and the person will comply on non-comply or attack you, or what have you.”
Chief Smith said the weapon used in the training is designed to have the same look and heft of the real Glocks used by the department. And because it’s a signal instead of bullets, it can be used indoors, and in weather that would keep people off a range.
It also alleviates the need to send people away to training facilities elsewhere, which can cost up to $1,000 a day with hotel stays, meals, and lost time.
And Fire Chief Noah Halm said things are calm at the moment:
“The weather looks like summer is coming to an end, so we’ll do more vehicle maintenance and things like that. We have pump testing and water testing coming up.”