News Releases

Owens’ New Tactical Wall Trains Officers and EMS for Real-World Scenarios

Public Safety instructors at Owens Community College have a new tool to put their students through real-world applications with the addition of a lightweight modular tactical range wall at the Center for Emergency Preparedness.

Public Safety instructors at Owens Community College have a new tool to put their students through real-world applications with the addition of a lightweight modular tactical range wall at the Center for Emergency Preparedness.

Public Safety instructors at Owens Community College have a new tool to put their students through real-world applications with the addition of a lightweight modular tactical range wall at the Center for Emergency Preparedness.

 

 

Public Safety instructors at Owens Community College have a new tool to put their students through real-world applications with the addition of a lightweight modular tactical range wall at the Center for Emergency Preparedness (CEP).

Purchased and received this summer, the American Range Wall can be assembled into an endless variety of corridors, hallways and rooms that allow students to be trained and tested in a variety of scenarios they may face as professionals.

The wall system won’t be solely used by students in the Department of Criminal Justice. It also gives scenario-based training opportunities for students in Emergency Services Technologies and is used by other organizations like Toledo Police, Toledo Fire and the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy (OPOTA), which is housed at the CEP. Law enforcement can use the system for room-clearing exercises or active threat training, and emergency medical services can use it for triage and extraction exercises.

“One of the biggest things we focus on in all of public safety but especially policing is scenario-based training, more reality-based,” said Mark King, OPOTA manager at Owens. “This is not just a ‘shoot, don’t shoot’ thing. You can run a lot of scenarios.”

Each section of the wall is 78 inches tall and 54.25 inches wide, weighs around 20 pounds and is made of durable double-wall corrugate. With a tool-free assembly, the panels connect through a slot-and-groove system, and King said as few as two people can put the entire structure together. Each section costs $99, bringing the total for the 84 walls available to Owens to around $8,000. According to King, the majority of the purchase money came from OPOTA regional training funds.

While other systems might be more durable or handle ballistic rounds, this option was well suited for Owens due to its portability, ease of assembly and affordability.

“That’s the simplicity and ease of the setup,” King said. “It’s maybe not as durable as other systems, but that also makes it relatively inexpensive. Obviously, it’s not ballistic, but if you stick with the CO2 or airsoft kind of weapons, it’ll be just fine.”

Since the wall system is set up inside the high bay at the CEP, training can happen regardless of the weather outside. It also gives King and the instructors an opportunity to control the setting.

One example is shutting the doors to the bay and turning off the lights, making it a pitch-black space. King will put strobe lights in the bay and pull in squad cars, using their lights to simulate a nighttime scenario.

“In total darkness, you can’t see anything in the high bay. That will force the officers to correctly and tactically use their flashlights to illuminate the threats,” King said.

“You’re working at night, the lights and flashing lights can be distracting,” he added. “You walk in a room and see flashing lights and shadows. I can pull a car on each side in the darkness and it disorients them even more. It’s training for real.”

The simplicity of the setup also allows for quick changes in the routing of the rooms and walls. King said students can go through one configuration in the morning and, by just moving a handful of walls, return to a completely different route after lunch.

“We can start with a corner-fed room, go to lunch, then make it a center-fed room,” King said. “If I move three or four walls, it totally changes everything. I don’t want them to get used to it. Then you lose that adaptability because they know what to expect.”

The only issue King has had with the wall is scheduling. Because of how much the high bay is used for a variety of purposes by different groups, and how many trainings can be affected by use of the wall, the scheduling can be intricate. Still, King said the effort is worth it as more groups line up to train in the space.

“We want to expose as many of our public safety professionals to this environment,” King said.