Today, students, faculty and staff at Ivy Tech Community College can put themselves in the shoes of a police officer deciding whether to use deadly force.

The Bloomington college is making use of a Firearms Training Simulator, a device that creates realistic "shoot, don't shoot" scenarios. The device was borrowed from the Indiana University Police Department.

Ivy Tech students and employees can use it to check out their reflexes, getting a taste of what it's like to make life-and-death decisions on the spot.

"The adrenaline and the excitement are quite real," said Gary Dunn, chairman of the Ivy Tech criminal justice department. "Fortunately, the ones who are killed or wounded are not."

The simulator, used in training police in firearms use, has a video screen and a laser gun. Ivy Tech personnel will have 20-minute sessions on the device, watching scenarios take shape and reacting to them.

In some simulations, they must shoot quickly to prevent harm to themselves or someone else. In others, there's only the appearance of a threat, and if they react too quickly, they may shoot an innocent party.

"It mandates a very quick decision-making process," said Dunn, a retired FBI agent who took charge of the Ivy Tech program in January 2003.

He said the idea behind using the simulator at Ivy Tech is to give criminal justice students an idea of what police officers go through — regardless of whether they intend to ever work as officers.

Dunn said enrollment in the program has taken off, with students — including recent high school graduates and law-enforcement professionals — working toward a college degree.

"We had 26 students two years ago, and we've got 186 now," he said.

Ivy Tech offers a two-year associate's degree in criminal justice. Officials from the school are talking with Indiana University representatives about agreements that would let Ivy Tech graduates transfer to IU's four-year program, Dunn said.

Reporter Steve Hinnefeld can be reached at 331-4374 or by e-mail at shinnefeld@heraldt.com.