A detailed, structured, and exhaustive evaluation and acceptance process is leading to the installation of 108 FAAC LE-1500 driver simulators at 24 law enforcement training sites throughout California.

FAAC Incorporated was selected to provide to the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (CA POST) law enforcement driving simulators. CA POST awarded the $10.3M simulator contract to FAAC after completing a statewide study to empirically assess the effectiveness of driving simulator training.

Study results, which revealed the value of driving simulator training, prompted CA POST to complete the procurement process, said Gary Sorg, Senior Consultant with the POST Commission.

Following a detailed CA POST product specification, the competitive procurement was awarded after a rigorous product demonstration and interview process, which concluded with FAAC the clear overall points leader. Three finalists, including FAAC, were selected from a large pool of initial bidders. Other finalists included L-3 MPRI and Doron Precision Systems, Inc.

Evaluation criteria included:

- geometrically correct 225-degree field of view,
- virtual world and graphics,
- vehicle dynamics and feel/feedback, and
- scenario building software.
- customer references,

In January, CA POST officials visited the FAAC headquarters for a weeklong series of trials and acceptance demonstrations. By the end of the week, CA POST and FAAC officials had signed off on more than 200 individual features and functions of the FAAC LE-1500 Driving Simulator®.

The CA POST endorsement is satisfying for FAAC Program Manager Judy Carmein, who is overseeing delivery of the contract.  

“This was an absolute team effort: Our people worked together, they worked hard, and they worked smart,” noted Judy Carmein, FAAC Program Manager. She added the development team consisted of electrical and software engineers, visual modelers, hardware technicians, mechanical designers, Quality Assurance personnel, and capabilities from other Arotech Training and Simulation Division companies.

Study Results
Before such a large investment, CA POST officials sought empirical proof that simulation training brought tangible value to its state-of-the-art law enforcement training program. POST Driver Training Study: Volume 1 of the study was presented to the POST Commission in October 2008.

Analyses in the study concluded that students who completed a simulator-only course were less likely to be involved in a collision than those who received only the Emergency Vehicle Operator Course (EVOC) course. However, the greatest reduction of collisions occurred when both simulators and EVOC training were applied together. The study resulted in the recommendation by CA POST staff to immediately revitalize California’s LEDS (Law Enforcement Driver Simulator) training program.  The POST Commission concurred and approved the recommendation. 

POST plans to continue its driver training research using the FAAC LE-1500 simulators. 

“POST is beginning additional research on peace officer driving safety, studying other variables such as fatigue,” Sorg said. “The most prominent research project POST will soon embark on is a pilot driving simulator training program for the Basic Academy.  Selected police academies will introduce simulator training as a supplement to hands-on driver training.  This program is under development and will likely be launched in the fall of 2010.”

Its past experience with driver simulation enabled POST officials to guide the development of necessary features and functions to enhance their current simulator training, said David Bouwkamp, FAAC Executive Director of Business Development.

“CA POST instructors are power users of law enforcement driving simulators,” Bouwkamp said. They have trained thousands of officers on driving simulators over the past 10-plus years. This customer knows what makes a difference in their training program, and they demanded it in the exacting requirements for their new simulators.”

The organization and forethought that POST put into the compliance specification has enabled it to set the stage for a higher level of simulator training, said FAAC Public Safety Specialist and former CA peace officer Chuck Deakins.

“The CA POST requirements have opened up the opportunity to expand their target beyond just a following or pursuit-type exercise into an area where they can actually use their vehicle as a tool, either by employing PIT (Pursuit Intervention Technique) or using their vehicle as a tool when confronted with an actual shooter,” Deakins said. “These new simulators have the ability to create a situation where an instructor can evaluate an officer’s judgment and decision-making as to whether their decision is within their department’s policy – now it is much easier to evaluate and train department-specific regulations.”

“This world includes new terrain and environments, potholes, construction workers, school and construction zones, and all this creates a much richer training environment and a much more realistic area to deploy law enforcement-specific training situations,” Deakins said. “Instructors using these simulators have the ability to have a suspect in a vehicle throw evidence out of the vehicle window, or leave the vehicle with a weapon in their hand. Features like these elevate the training from driving only to observation and decision-making.”

Sorg said that POST’s next steps are to install and implement all training sites and mobile platforms, get new instructors trained on the systems, and create a POST Scenario Development Team to build additional scenarios using FAAC’s PathDriver® scenario development tool. 

Carmein said the installation rate will be roughly 12 simulator systems per month, mostly in pods of four simulators per site. The first site is scheduled to be installed in March and include all the features and functions that were demonstrated at the judging trials and approved during the acceptance process.

Some areas of the evaluation included:

- Field of view
- Virtual driving world
- Driver cab features
- Customer references

Field of View
The proper field of view was critically important to the selection committee, said Bouwkamp. Committee members analyzed both the geometric accuracy of the visual image displayed and the span of image in a tactical setting.

“Our simulators are purpose-built, meaning that we build what the market has identified as important for training its particular professionals,” Bouwkamp said. “In this case, CA POST officials identified as a vital requirement the ability of students to conduct proper over-the-shoulder checks beyond 90 degrees, to develop critical scanning techniques for clearing intersections and maintaining situational awareness while responding in emergency conditions. We were the only vendor able to provide CA POST with a true 225-degree field-of-view solution utilizing five screens during the demonstration phase. This enables not only an over-the-shoulder view, but a past-the-shoulder view as well.

“We believe that some of the most severe and costly collisions, both in terms of lives and property, experienced by law enforcement are at intersections. Instructors must have the proper tool in their hands to reinforce the intersection clearing process, and that means scanning beyond 90 degrees in each direction to monitor other traffic lanes.”

Other considerations also were important to the scoring panel.

Virtual Driving World
Panelists were impressed with the purpose-built California-variant driving world displayed at the live judging demonstrations last fall.

FAAC engineers created California-type terrain, including mountainous freeways, steep grades, switchbacks, deserts, canyons, highways, and suburban areas, as well as downtown street grids to accommodate training in a simulated world that is reflective of the state’s diverse environment.

The LE-1500 has the capability to use the PIT (Pursuit Intervention Technique) maneuver so students can practice that tactic and save on wear and tear to real vehicles. Instructors can teach both mechanical aspects of the technique and decision-making on when and where to use PIT.

Students can drive a single exercise that takes them from a high-rise metropolitan area to small roadside villages through a variety of paved and unpaved street types. Along the way, students encounter skateboarders, bicyclists, walking pedestrians, and animals, and they must maneuver around blind intersections, hidden driveway turnouts, speed bumps and potholes, roundabouts, school and construction zones, railroad tracks, and motorized traffic. Students can even patrol through a campground built into the virtual world.

Instructors have the capability to alter environmental factors in a student’s driving exercise. They can add fog, snow, rain, and dust, decrease vehicle traction, increase wind speed, control traffic signal patterns, and whether evidence is thrown from the suspect vehicle. Based on the CA POST specification, training scenarios include bullet impacts on the virtual patrol vehicle’s windshield indicating an active shooter or ambush.

In addition, FAAC engineers added all the current CA POST driving scenarios to the new driving world. This additional scenario development not only maintains the instructional continuity created during the past several years of simulator training but will provide students with fresh training exercises.

Driver Cab Features
FAAC engineers have built features and functions into the LE-1500 simulator specifically required by CA POST. Some of these items include:

- An authentic driving compartment, including instrumentation, seating, steering, pedal feel and driving dynamics such as acceleration, braking, and turning.
- Dynamic feedback to impacted objects and distinguishing the severity of collisions that have been detected. Minor collisions register with a cracked windshield, audio cues, and decreased handling; however, it allows the student to continue driving, creating a judgment situation as to whether he or she continues the pursuit or remains at the collision scene.
- A working mobile digital computer (MDC).
- After-action exercise review via video playback, which enables real-time instructor review and classroom review opportunities.
- Picture-in-picture technology to be used during driving replays and instructor-student reviews that combines views of the students face and hand placement, and the vehicle in the virtual world.
- Wireless instructor controls to manage up to four simulators from a remote location.

“The driver simulator is a complete training system for instructors,” said Deakins. “Every feature and function on this simulator was designed to help instructors transfer their knowledge of safe, defensive driving to their students. Depending on the objective and the need, an instructor can custom-build a training session that highlights that specific issue.

“If you come to me with a driving problem I will create a solution for it on this simulator.”

Customer References
CA POST panelists created a scoring category for customer references due to the size and length of the contract, and the investment in simulation technology they were making. Panelists interviewed current customers from each of the three finalists’ to determine long-term compatibility with the CA POST vision.

FAAC was far ahead of the pack in the customer reference category, scoring a full 30% higher than the next closest competitor. Scoring criteria included product reliability, customer satisfaction, build quality, product features, and service support.

“CA POST officials are not just making a technology purchase, they are entering into a long-term partnership with FAAC to build the next generation of training capability,” said Deakins. “They want to know who they are doing business with, and whether they can count on FAAC not just for delivery, but after it as well. It looks from the scores that FAAC’s customers had very good things to say about the service and support departments.”

“The product has met or exceeded our expectations at every level. FAAC’s simulators are at the top end of current technology,” said Sorg. “We are very pleased with the result. Throughout the pre-production planning, production capability inspection, and production proof inspection phases, POST has enjoyed a spirit of cooperation and teamwork with all of the FAAC staff.  We are dealing with a very professional staff at FAAC who took the specifications and all bid requirements very seriously.”

For more information on FAAC simulator products, please contact Bill Martin at 734-761-5836 or via email at wbmartin@faac.com

For more information on the results of the CA POST Driver Training Study, click here:  www.post.ca.gov/Publications/Driver_Training_Study .