MPRI today announced that the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) has purchased 12 PatrolSim IV driver simulators. The purchase brings to 43 the number of MPRI driver training simulators FLETC has purchased in the past two years.

The simulators will be used to provide basic training to uniformed police and land management professionals. FLETC trains law enforcement professionals from more than 85 federal agencies plus state, local and international agencies.

FLETC's Glynco, Ga., location installed 12 PatrolSim IVs during the week of Nov. 19, for a total of 40 PatrolSims there. FLETC's Cheltenham, Md., facility recently installed three PatrolSim IVs. Together, the two facilities will train approximately 1,900 uniformed police and 360 land management professionals on MPRI simulators in 2009.

"We commend FLETC for advancing its technology initiative through the adoption of 12 additional world-class driver simulators,” said Richard Gerding, senior vice president and general manager, Simulations Group, MPRI. "By providing trainees with the true-to-life experience they gain through the PatrolSim IV, FLETC is preparing its graduates to handle myriad driving conditions that could not be replicated through field exercises alone.”

Both the uniformed police and the land management training curriculums will now include classroom-, simulation- and field-based training. The uniformed police program is a 12-week course that includes 40 hours of driver training, six of which are simulator-based. FLETC's land management trainees undergo a 17-week curriculum, which includes approximately nine hours of driver training in which a yet to be determined number of hours will be simulator-based. This will be the first time that FLETC land management trainees have used driver simulators.

The PatrolSim IV complements classroom and field training by enabling drivers to practice critical, high-risk tasks that are too dangerous or costly to be conducted frequently in vehicles, such as driving on ice, fording streams, driving in blackouts and maneuvering down steep embankments.

It features high-resolution graphics on three large-screen plasma displays to provide unmatched realism, and comprehensive training consisting of traffic stops, pursuits, multiple vehicles, emergency responses and more. It also features the Instructor Operating Station which allows instructors to track, record and play back the movements of multiple networked simulators, ideal for coordinated efforts.

By utilizing MPRI simulators FLETC is striving to reduce the frequency and severity of vehicle-related operational accidents involving law enforcement officers, which are the greatest liability for loss of life on duty.