The screams of rubber-on-pavement could be heard throughout the City-County Athletic Complex Wednesday, but inside one of Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department squad cars being used to test and recertify all deputies’ driving skills, only a muffled engine roar could be heard over intense breathing and adrenaline-fueled heartbeats. For under two white-knuckled minutes, deputies navigate an orange coned course of twists and breakneck turns, hard panic braking and high-speed backing that pushes the limits of an officer’s stress level, multi-tasking talents and composure under pressure. State mandates require the department to hold two hours of emergency vehicle training every year for all merit deputies to remain certified to drive. The deputies have two minutes to complete the course, which training center head Jeff Clark insists is “actually quite easy”. Two minutes sounds like a while. It’s a tasking amount of time. The course begins with a pedal-to-the-floor sprint to a wall of cones that force you to make a quick directional decision. That transitions into a hard turn, welcomed next by a series of cones that the driver has to snake through. At top speeds, this will take a wheel off the pavement. The course then moves into a hard brake, followed by a tight backing drill. The accelerator is then pressed to the floor again for several other snaking turns and split movements before a long reverse test that demands control and speed. Finally, an all-out burst toward a wall of cones, where the driving must brake and turn hard simultaneously. These words do nothing to explain the intensity of the course. Clark said the deputies naturally get a bit competitive about their times on the course. While he would not disclose who has the quickest time to date, Clark said the best times are in the sub-1:15 range. But, the course is not actually all about speed. “It’s not about how fast they can do it,” said Jon Tyler, who runs the training course with Clark. “It’s about how smooth they can transition between each obstacle, how well they can coordinate their steering and acceleration and braking and make those multiple decisions at the same time, and being to manipulate the gearshift and reverse at the same time. Doing those multiple tasks, and being smooth with it.” Tyler said the course simulates obstacles or hazards that a deputy could see any given day during duty, such as maneuvering through traffic or swerving to avoid a stopped car or person. “They’re practical applications of incidents you might see any given day,” said Clark. “We just simulate it here under higher stress. We want to push their abilities here, and maybe go even a little further than their abilities, because they can’t do that on the street or on patrol. You can’t drive to the edge and out of control. But you can here, and if you make a mistake, it’s a cone at a training center, and not in somebody’s front yard.” Clark said the department has never had a deputy not pass the course and lose the ability to drive. The department makes every effort to offer remedial training for deputies struggling with the course to avoid that. To keep all officers certified, the state allows the department the option of giving a training lecture, or conducting the live course driving lessons. “We prefer the driving, just to give the guys some experience,” said Clark. “Most enjoy it. Some that don’t drive a lot, it’s nerve-racking, but for most of the guys it gets the adrenaline up even though it’s a pretty simple exercise.”
