Every three years, RCMP officers go through a vigorous training course designed to look at the use of force training.
The course takes place in Chilliwack and CHBC News recently got a behind-the-scenes look.
In the training module, officers are trained to deal with armed and sometimes unstable suspects.
But for Dara Mitchell of http://www.vernoncentral.ca, who is a participant in the training course, the scenarios prove to be stressful on the mind.
Mitchell, who confronted an armed suspect in her module, struggles to recall what happened just minutes after the scenario.
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She doesn’t remember seeing a gun, can’t recall how many shots were fired or even what she said during the staged altercation.
Sergeant Tim Anctil, a use of force expert, says Mithcell’s memory malfunction is not unusual.
Anctil says it’s something almost every officer will experience to some degree in a high-pressure situation and adds officers often have their vision tunnel in and hearing shut down.
He admits it can be an issue when an incident goes to trial or a coroner’s inquest.
But the RCMP are catching up with the science behind human physiology and the training course is part of the changes they have implemented.
The more officers are put into these types of situations, the greater likelihood they will learn to keep calm, follow their training and remember the incident afterward.
Anctil says the hope is with more repetition and training, the actions will become part of the officer’s unconscious competence, which is a state of mind where actions become second nature to an individual.
The Pacific Regional Training Centre in Chilliwack has been open for a decade and is the most advanced RCMP training facility in the country.
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