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On Thursday a LaGrange Daily News reporter was able to participate and role play in the Troup County Sheriff’s Office annual traffic stop training. Our reporter was able to see first hand what a high-risk traffic stop is like and role play as a perpetrator.

Each year, deputies, old and new, all have to go through the hands-on training to get a refresher on how to handle traffic stops that can go very wrong.

TCSO uses scenarios that have happened in the county and across the country. They used scenarios that in real-life situations resulted in the death of police officers. After each scenario was played out, oth the sheriff and staff members would critique the deputy on what they did good and bad.

This training is imperative to the members of TCSO because it could save the life of not only an officer but even a suspect. They were put through scenarios where the traffic stop was simple but could escalate quickly, where the suspect intended to shoot the officer, on-the-run criminals and more.  If an officer was distracted by a suspect, a second suspect in the scenario capitalized and shot the officer with paintball bullets. In every situation, a TCSO officer would pull over an unmarked van that had someone equipped with combat training paintball pistols that could be used if the officer made a mistake or was distracted. We know this training isn’t easy and takes a whole day to go through every officer but know it is important and worth every moment. We appreciate the TCSO letting us get an up close look.