Serious business

for law enforcement

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- To an uneducated eye, the sight of two New Ulm police cars frantically chasing each other around the runways of the New Ulm Municipal Airport could easily look like auditions for a stunt scene in a Hollywood movie.

But it isn't, and the actual purpose is much more serious.

The idea behind the wailing sirens, screeching tires and dust clouds is teaching police officers how to handle their vehicles in road-chase situations.

Recently, a state mandate said every Minnesota peace officer must take driver training with the three-year licensure period. To help police and sheriff's departments meet that requirement, Ron Thomton, a law enforcement training course instructor with Minnesota West College in Granite Falls, runs a peace officers driving course with the help of his son and Bruce Verdoes, a Redwood Falls District State Trooper.

Thomton has been putting on training programs for police departments all over Minnesota for about 10 years straight.

"We're just trying to get them used to the vehicles they drive and situations they might encounter in real life," Verdoes said.

The teaching occurs in two types of classrooms. When officers take one of Thomton's courses, they begin their training in a typical classroom setting. Over the course of the first four hours, Thomton and his students will cover departmental policies and procedures, vehicle maintenance and what he calls "effective and efficient driving habits."

The other kind of classroom is less typical.

At this particular session, a small handful of New Ulm police officers and State Troopers gathered in one corner of the runway at New Ulm Municipal Airport. They stand together, many of them dressed in civilian clothes, and observe two dark blue NUPD sedans, one with no lights on and the other with its lights flashing and siren blaring, as one speeds after the other as they wind their way through several sets of orange traffic cones.

The pursuing officer reports to Verdoes, or "Dispatch" as he's called in this situation, and gives up-to-date information on the chase. Verdoes stands with the group, wearing a pair of sunglasses, shorts, a t-shirt and a police radio clipped to his belt. He watches the chase play out and responds to the pursuing officer's periodic radio reports.

A typical chase lasts only about two to three minutes -- the average time a real car chase lasts, according to Thomton. After the cars have completed the course, they return to the spot where they started and the pursuit happens all over again.

"Who's going next?" Verdoes asks the officers, who are standing together chatting and joking. He gets two volunteers -- Officer Andy Leif and Sgt. Paul Kalow of the NUPD. For this run, Kalow decided on being the "bad guy." Leif is the "good guy" and has the dubious task of trying to catch Kalow in a standard New Ulm police squad car.

The chase begins with what seems a likely scenario. Kalow sits inside the bad guy car with its motor running. Leif approaches the car and knocks on the window. Kalow sticks his arm out the window like he has a gun and then takes off. Leif then runs back to the squad car and follows him, fastening his seat belt and turning on the flashing lights and siren as he leaves.

The officers begin their course with a set of tight turns marked by orange traffic cones and then darts between two aircraft hangars and comes back out to the main course.

The bad guy car speeds out onto the runway, and as it does, the radio traffic between Leif and Verdoes is heard. The pursuing officer calls dispatch, give his badge number and says he's in pursuit.

Verdoes responds by asking the pursuing officer the reason for the chase. In this instance, it's something to the effect of "He pulled a gun on me." The pursuing officer calls in the model, maker and color of the car being chased to the dispatcher, who responds with a quick "10-4" to say the information is understood.

At every new turn, the pursuing officer informs the dispatcher of the street and the direction that the chase is taking. Over the radio come updates like "Turning the corner of Runway Road, heading west down Hangar Street." The wail siren is recognizable even over the radio.

The cars speed across the runway at close to 100 miles per hour in some cases, usually with the bad guy car in the lead. At the end of the runway is a second set of cones designed to simulate a quick U-turn. After that, there's another quick jerk to the left another to the right and then the home stretch. The cars come in a relatively comparable times. The officers get out of the cars and pop the hoods and check the engines for fluid levels. The air smells like burning rubber and many of the onlooking officers are quick to point that out.

"It's like Valleyfair," Leif joked. "Only the risks are real."

To Thomton, a part-time Granite Falls police officer, the real risks of a high-speed car chase are the reason for the course in first place. He says he puts on about six to 10 training sessions a year, and his jurisdiction isn't limited solely to police and sheriff's departments or to rural areas. He also trains paramedics and firefighters in vehicle safety. His most recent paramedic session was in Minneapolis.

Thomton doesn't just train for vehicles, either. He also offers courses for firearms qualification and defensive tactics. For the most part, his training program is limited to departments in the state's more rural areas. He says he's been to all four of Minnesota's borders in the time he's been plying the training course. The courses he sets up are specifically designed to state standards and cover typical chase scenarios. The actual design of the course depends on the facility.

Although law enforcement and criminology programs at Minnesota's state colleges and universities have driver's training courses for peace officers, they are somewhat rare, Thomton said.

"A lot of guys don't have the opportunity to do this until now," Thomton said. "Somebody calls, and it's 'have cones, will travel'. We're willing to go anywhere to provide this training."