On an asphalt expanse larger than a football field at Sedona Airport, Sedona police officers with orange and black rubber guns drawn practiced a high-risk vehicle stop, yelling methodical instructions at pretend suspect Sgt. Michael Dominguez, who slowly exited a vehicle with arms raised, later throwing away his own fake rubber gun, which tumbled to a stop on the pavement noiselessly.
In a maze of orange traffic cones nearby, other officers practiced something a little more mundane: Avoiding cones while backing up.
It was all part of Sedona Police Department’s in-service training session on Dec. 23, hosted this year by Sedona Airport, which has the space SPD needs to safely practice skills like evasive maneuvers at speed and other on-the-job skills.
Hip-hop played from one of the police SUVs as the officers waited for everyone to arrive on the crisp and windy afternoon on the mesa.
Sgt. Casey Pelletier, who serves as lead driving instructor for the department, said that using Sedona Airport for the recent training saved officers a trip to the Yavapai County Driving Track in Prescott Valley, operated by the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office, which the department has used for driving skills in recent years.
“The airport works very well for the training. We just make sure our drills fit with what we have to use,” Pelletier said.
At a third course, Sedona officers practiced swerving at 35 mph to avoid an obstruction pulling out suddenly into the road, in this case, a very large teddy bear — dubbed Tommy Trips-a-Lot by Detective Brandon Bergstad, a high-risk vehicle stop instructor assisting Pelletier — thrown suddenly into their lane.
Physically performing the motions involved in an evasive maneuver or a high-risk vehicle stop “sticks in the brain more than talking about it,” Bergstad said.
“Repetition, practice, honing skills, making sure we’re proficient,” Dominguez said of the value of in-service training.
