Police Academy: Weeks 16 & 17
Week 16 consisted of Survival Spanish.
Week 17
Monday was supposed to be a defensive tactics review day. I wasn't looking forward to it and was relieved to find out we were doing the Precision Immobilization Tecnique (PIT) maneuver instead. After a classroom instruction block including some videos, we took the EVOC cars over to the track. Sgt. Parrott demonstrated the maneuver a couple of times for us, and then it was our turn.
We each PITed at least once from each side before lunch. After lunch we did the same except on a curve. Afterwards we learned how to box in a car in order to stop it.Tuesday was supposed to be Hazardous Materials, but instead we had a class on how to use our protective masks. We learned some things about the masks, and then tested them for a good fit. This all took a couple of hours. The rest of the day we did nothing. Well, we studied our radio signals and codes, but had nothing else to do, due to a lack of instructors.Wednesday was Bombs and Explosives as well as WMDs. It sounds like it would be a whole lot of fun, but actually was pretty dry. We learned how to respond to such events, but not how to make them. I guess I could always Google it if I really wanted to know.Thursday and Friday was the first half of our RADAR certification. We need 16 more hours of practicing with the RADAR in the field before we are certified to use it for traffic stops. Part of the training requires you to be able to estimate a car's speed within five miles per hour. It sounds a lot harder than it is.