Course Stresses Weapons Safety

By Kendra Bobowick

A crouching figure swung his gun barrel toward Newtown police officers last week, prompting them to draw their own firearms and pull the trigger. Luckily, the figure was only an ink outline on paper.

“As silly as it may sound, we yell at the paper target, ‘Police, don’t move,’” said Sergeant Phil Hynes, one of Newtown’s four firearms instructors in the police department. This or a similar phrase mingled with gunfire in recent weeks as Newtown Police Department’s 40-plus members completed their annual firearms qualification course, which ended October 19. Verbalizing commands is part of the safety-first training, he explained

Pivoting, moving, and stationary, all targets represent dangerous suspects. “They all have a gun pointed at the officers,” Sergeant Hynes said.

The targets’ torsos are also marked with a code. CM-5 is printed in a pattern creating a firing zone. “It’s the center mass of a body — what we’re trained to aim at,” said a second instructor, Detective Joe Joudy. “It’s drilled into us.”

“We are not trained to kill, but to stop the threat, God forbid, that we have to use a weapon,” Sergeant Hynes said.

Stressing again that department personnel are not trained to kill, Sergeant Hynes continued, “It’s to protect the life of our officers and the public.” Although no one on the Newtown force has had to draw and fire a weapon in the 23 years that Detective Joudy can remember, the training allows officers to review safety guidelines and policies regarding the decision on the use of force, said Sergeant Hynes.

Do Newtown’s officers face deadly threats? “In Newtown it’s a possibility. There is always potential and you have to make sure officers can protect themselves,” he said.

Standing with him before a row of the stationary paper targets and others posters that pivoted or slid along a wire were the department’s two other instructors, Officer Stephen Ketchum and Officer Jeffrey Silver.

Both men demonstrated motions of their training as Officer Silver took a position behind stacked barrels and fired at a target. Officer Ketchum steadied his pistol in both hands, turned slightly, and took aim toward the CM-5 zone.