Training event turns painful for potential police officers

Aug. 3—Layne Samples, 26, of Munford, gave the camera a thumbs up to signify that everything was OK after getting pepper-sprayed in the face.

Five minutes later, Samples was on the ground in serious pain — unable to open his eyes with mucus pouring from his nose.

Samples is one of seven other men training to become an Anniston police officer. The rite-of-passage the candidates endured is standard for all incoming officers.

The trainees first went through a pre-training course on the tools, where they learned proper use of law enforcement-grade tasers, pepper spray, and tear gas. Then the fun part began — testing out the tools on themselves.

The chemical compound in the pepper is no longer just pepper capsaicin, but rather a substance that is an irritant and inflammatory that actually crystallizes inside of the eyes. Those crystals form and grow if the person it's used on doesn't blink to break the crystals apart — which is extremely painful and difficult to do because of the inflammatory properties of the chemical.

APD training instructor Sgt. Justin Hartley said the purpose was partly to give the trainees an idea of what someone goes through when these tools are used in hopes the officer won't abuse that technique. The standardized course is part of all officer training across the country.

Hartley explained that none of the tools is designed to have any lasting effects or to cause physical damage. The tools are weapons meant to stop a potential attacker without deadly force.

Specifically the taser, the five-second jolt of electricity, has proven to be quite effective with a quick recovery time, according to Hartley.

"Over the years, it's proven to save a lot of lives. It isn't pretty unfortunately but it does save a lot of lives," Hartley said. "Without it, we have nothing in between."

During training events such as these this past Friday, Hartley said APD has never had anyone pass out or had any other adverse effects from the tasing portion. Other officers in the department gather around and cheer each other on in show of support for their fellow team members.

"They do the five-second ride, we all laugh at it and no ones ever been hurt from it thankfully," Hartley said. "We bring everyone out. Couple of times a year we do this and get everyone together, laugh at each other. They've all been through it."

Hartley then explained that the tear gas substance used is an aerosol form of the pepper spray. The men were ushered into a storage building, the spray fogger was set off, and then men were asked to sing "I'm a little teapot."

The group got out the first few words of the sound before coughing and sputtering began. Hartley said that the officers can breathe, but it's "very uncomfortable" and makes you think you can't.

One observing officer likened the air surrounding outside the storage building to being "spicy."

Once the group recovered from the fogger, the training moved on to the pepper spray portion.

Each officer trainee lined up to take a turn getting sprayed in the eyes with the substance. None seemed bothered by the spray at first. Some, like Samples, gave thumbs up in assurance that they were fine. Then the scene drastically changed.

The amount of pain the group was enduring was obvious — mucus draining out of noses, spit flying everywhere, tears uncontrollably streaming down all seven of their faces. Some marched in place, some cried, some cursed, some even vomited.

Out of the three tools used on the trainees Friday, the taser is the one used most often in the field. Besides the obvious pain factor and not wanting to subject another living person to that experience, there's also the care factor, according to Hartley.

Once an officer uses any tool on a subject, they are immediately responsible for that person's care. The five-minute recovery time for tasers is much more manageable than the 45 minutes it takes for the average person to recover from the pepper spray.

Each of the training officers Friday had two to three support officers guiding him through the experience after getting pepper sprayed — telling them to force their eyes open with their thumbs, to walk into the wind, and to blink as many times as they could to break down the crystals.

The average person doesn't know what to do in that situation. The officers learned the effects of the tools, but also got a first-hand experience on how to care for someone affected by those tools.