The Newton County Sheriff’s Office will receive decision-based drivers training for their deputies. It’s called a driving simulator and it allows a driver to be put into everyday driving and emergency response situations without actually being out on the road and in their vehicle. Not only that, but the simulator is mobile and it comes, literally, right to the doorstep of the Newton County Sheriff’s Office to provide the training.

The simulator is the key component of a decision based Public Safety Driver Training program. Drivers first attend classroom training that covers applicable Georgia requirements on regular as well on emergency response driving, vehicle handling characteristics, physical driving conditions and driving techniques to use during emergency response situations.

After the classroom training comes the actual hands-on training in the simulator. One student observes and the other sits in a realistic driver’s seat where they are put through a series of driving scenarios from a list of over 80 available scenarios. When a driver makes an incorrect decision the instructor can back the program up and replay it showing the driver the situation, discussing driving techniques that would apply, and then can have the driver repeat the same scenario using the techniques learned.

The primary LGRMS instructor is David Trotter. He is a Georgia POST certified law enforcement officer with 20 years of experience. He is also a POST certified general inspector and senior instructor with specialized instructor certifications in emergency vehicle operation, railroad grade crossing incident management and is certified by the California Highway Patrol as a pursuit immobilization technique (PIT) instructor. He has 12 years of instructor experience including adjunct instructor at Northeast Georgia Police Academy, the James A. Neal Training Center and the PRISim Mobile Judgmental Use of Force Simulator which trained in seven southeastern states.

This decision based driver program is presented by local government risk management services. LGRMS is a service organization of the Association County Commissioners of Georgia, ACCG, and the Georgia Municipal Association, GMA. ACCG and GMA’s risk management workers compensation and property/liability self insurance funds are financially supporting this program because of the unique program because of the unique and high-risk driving situations that local government employees, specifically law enforcement and public safety personnel may be involved with on a daily basis.