Pubdate: Sat, 12 Apr 2003 Source: Sudbury Star (CN ON) Copyright: 2003 The Sudbury Star Contact: http://www.thesudburystar.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/608 Author: Lindsay Kelly Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/raids.htm (Drug Raids) 'DRUG BUST' A LEARNING TOOL Students Simulate High-Risk Situations They Might Find Themselves In During Their Careers Local News - So, I was hanging out with my sister Annik, her boyfriend Michel and my boyfriend Hissein the other day, when we heard an unexpected knock at the door. Hissein gets up to answer it, and half a dozen cops push their way into the house. In seconds, I am flipped around, pushed face down onto the couch and my hands are held behind my back. I am terrified, my heart is pounding in my ears, and all I can think is "What's going on?" "Don't move," the officer tells me, as he wraps handcuffs around my wrists. "You'll only make them tighter." He hauls me up from the couch and sits me beside Annik, cross-legged on the floor, with my hands cuffed behind me. The cuffs are tight and I can't move. I look to Hissein, who is being frisked and held against the wall by two other cops. He's yelling for his lawyer and they're trying to keep him quiet. "Don't hurt him!" I yell. "We didn't do anything wrong!" But now I'm being hauled to my feet again, and a female officer begins to frisk me. "What's your name? Are you armed? Do you have any drugs on you?" She attacks me with a barrage of questions as she pads down my arms and legs, checking for drugs. Meanwhile, Michel is out cold on the floor, blood pouring down his face, and the paramedics are called in to make sure he's still breathing. He tried to run, so they zapped him with a tazer gun, and when he fell he hit his head. "What did you do to my boyfriend!" Annik yells. "What's going on?" Finally, we are shown a warrant and I am informed what I am being charged with: possession of an illegal substance. Why then, readers might ask, am I sitting in a downtown office, writing about the experience and not doing time in jail? Was it a dream? A recollection of my shady past as a drug lord's girlfriend? In fact, Friday afternoon, I took part in the annual Police Foundations simulated drug bust in the new Police Foundations lab at College Boreal. Annik Gravel, Hissein Hamit and Michel Carre are all second-year Police Foundations students at the college. The lab hosts a fully simulated house, including a bedroom, bathroom, living room and kitchen area, complete with a kitchen table strewn with (empty) beer bottles, and bags of cocaine (flour) stashed in the house. There is also an observation area above the crime scene where students can watch as the scene unfolds. The lab was opened a few weeks ago, to enable second-year Police Foundations students to simulate high-risk situations they might find themselves in during their careers in law enforcement. Gerry Hogan, professor and co-ordinator of the event, believes the lab is important, because it is the closest students will get to real-life high-risk crime takedowns before they become police officers. "The purpose of the exercise is is to help the students realize, number one, it's not a TV show, but a real-life situation," he said. "Number two is that they'll know how difficult it is to be a police officer, to truly understand what a police officer goes through." Students experience a few simulations a week, and one large simulation is organized at the end of the year, in which second-year students participate. Police officers from the City of Greater Sudbury Police Services, the Ontario Provincial Police, and paramedics from EMS were on hand to offer their experience and expertise. The simulations are videotaped from start to finish, and the students will watch the tapes in class to analyze what they did well and what improvements they can make. "The procedures are enormous and they have to be done right," Hogan said. "I want to see how they react in the situation. I want to see the control of the officer." Hogan emphasizes the knowledge and experience of the police officers are instrumental in helping students see what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong in a situation. "If not for them we wouldn't be able to do this successfully," he said. *Lindsay Kelly is a journalism student from Cambrian College and the winner of The Sudbury Star's journalism scholarship for 2002-2003. She is currently on placement at The Star. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom