FAAC Commercial News

  It’s winter. The roads are icy, but nothing too terrible. Old holiday lights left plugged in overnight have failed, causing a house fire. You arrive at the scene, deploy the hoses, activate the pump—and no water flows. There’s air in the pump. A really small mistake—a single missed step. “But a lot of times,” … Continued

Ann Arbor, Michigan – February 10, 2020 – Arotech Corporation’s Training and Simulation Division (ATSD) has acquired Inter-costal Electronics, Inc. (ICE), a privately-owned corporation headquartered in Mesa, AZ. For over 30 years, ICE has been a leading provider of live training and test instrumentation systems. ICE designs, manufactures, and supports complex instrumentation ecosystems supporting strategic … Continued

  Situational awareness training is perhaps the most critical and most neglected aspect of preparing a mass-transit vehicle operator to get out on the road. Why is situational awareness so vital to transit operators? Just look at this dash-cam footage released by Houston’s METRO (Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County) According to reporters in Houston, … Continued

  It’s well established that there’s a nationwide shortage of both professional and volunteer firefighters. As one Connecticut fire chief recently noted, “age is also a concern. [Our] average volunteer now is about 50 years old.” Communities across the country need to increase the size of their firefighting forces, decrease the age, and train everyone … Continued

  Simulator technology has proven to be a game-changer in training transit vehicle operators. Although we’ve seen these benefits throughout the transit sector, rail transit operators may reap some of the greatest rewards. Nigel Lindsey-King is a transit training professional and former Superintended of Surface Transportation Training for the Toronto Transit Commission. He has decades … Continued

  HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah — Earlier this year, Fire and Emergency Services at Hill Air Force Base received three new fire trucks to enhance the department’s ability to respond to fires and other emergencies. Now, the addition of a new, high-tech pump operations simulator will serve to improve the training base firefighters receive by … Continued

According to data from the Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), roughly 12,000 people were killed in police chases between 1979 and 2013.  That’s roughly one death per day and is almost certainly an undercount (according to a 2015 investigative report, NHTSA’s figures for many specific states—including Kansas, Michigan, and Minnesota–showed fewer … Continued

  We already know that police pursuits are extremely dangerous to both bystanders and officers, but they’re also extremely expensive. In Canton v. Harris (1989) the Supreme Court found that, under certain circumstances, inadequate training resulting in injury or death can be the basis for liability under U.S.C. Title 42, S. 1983.  Although that particular … Continued

  Officers are expected to be on-the-spot social workers. That demands monumental presence of mind—which is completely at odds with the realities of the street, where a million things are happening at once. Chuck Deakins—FAAC Training Group lead subject matter specialist (SMS)—points out, “When I go into a physical training or martial arts environment, what’s … Continued

Chuck Deakins has spent years helping law enforcement agencies integrate modern simulation-based police scenario training systems with their existing programs. At some point in every “train the trainer” session, he finds himself saying the same thing: “Stop talking, start training.” Deakins–a 30-year veteran of law enforcement often asks instructors to remember how they learned to … Continued