AST Digital Magazine August 2017 Digital-Aug | Page 60

Volume 15
niques and are immersed in realistic scenarios in
Hogan’s Alley, the mock town and training facility
at the FBI Academy.
August 2017 Edition
accurately.” Trainees must qualify in a series of
tests to graduate.
Just behind Hogan’s Alley, trainees are speeding
around a 1.1-mile road track and weaving their
cars around orange cones on the precision ob-
stacle course.
An instructor is closely watching the maneuvers
as new agents push their way to the finish.
The driving techniques learned at the Academy’s
Tactical Emergency Vehicle Operations Center,
or TEVOC, prepare agents to handle a variety of
dangerous situations like high-speed chases and
reversing out of alleyways under fire.
(New agents learn to shoot a pistol, shotgun, and carbine
at the FBI Academy. Rhys Williams, a special agent and in-
structor with the Firearms Training Unit, explains how and
why new agent trainees achieve proficiency with their weap-
ons during their time at Quantico. Courtesy of the FBI and
YouTube)
Just a few blocks from the indoor range sits a
large field house.
(Take a virtual ride in this 360-degree video shot on the FBI
Academy’s precision obstacle course as an instructor ex-
plains what types of maneuvers new agents are tested on
behind the wheel. Best viewed on laptop or desktop. Courtesy
of the FBI and YouTube)
Trainees also spend hundreds of hours across
the Academy campus on the range, shooting
countless rounds of ammunition.
New agents need to protect innocent lives and
may be faced with dangerous encounters in the
line of duty, so it’s necessary to become proficient
with a variety of firearms, including the pistol,
shotgun, and carbine.
“One of the most important things that we stress
at the Academy is firearms training,” said Myers.
“We spend a lot of time with trainees teaching
them how to handle firearms safely and to shoot
Inside the building, a sea of blue exercise mats
line the floor, along with fake padded furniture
and a partial replica of a commercial airplane—
items used by instructors to teach close-quarter
defensive tactics like boxing, grappling, disarm-
ing, and searching.
In one of the drills, a subject (actually another
trainee) refuses to stand up from his desk and
be handcuffed, forcing agents to wrestle him to
the ground.
As they bump up against the padded furniture, it
takes two agents to subdue their subject.
It’s all over in a matter of seconds, but the realis-
tic exercise simulates what could happen when
criminals turn violent during an arrest.
For those students without any previous law
enforcement or military experience, the tactical
training can be one of the most challenging as-
pects of their time at the Academy.
They may have never thrown a punch, shot a
60