After the cop pulled me over, he marched upward to the window of my car, leaned over so I'd exist certain to hear him, and barked loudly, "You're non trained to drive that fast!" Fact is, I am, and although I'd have liked to argue that 84 mph on a specially straight section of 70-mph interstate requires very petty skill, it was probably not a skillful time to contradict the stern fellow in blueish.

But the experience left me wondering: What kind of driving instruction do cops get?

And that'southward how nosotros wound upwardly at the 42-acre Michigan State Law test facility near Lansing, Michigan, in 1 of its driving schools for cops. In addition to the entry-level plan we attended, Advanced Precision Driving, Michigan's three total-time and 15 rotating instructors teach a 3-day advanced course that focuses on pursuit driving, an upcoming grade that teaches the PIT ("precision immobilization technique") spin-out maneuver, besides as a motorcycle driving school and a yearly test of all bachelor police vehicles.

Congenital in 1989, this country-police facility has a i.0-mile road course, a nine-acre treatment pad, and a slippery, three-acre skid-control surface area. Every one of Michigan's 1100 state troopers must laissez passer the week-long course nosotros attended before getting his or her badge, but police from many jurisdictions also hone their skills hither to supplement their initial driving test at a local university. That was the example in our class, where experience among the eight cops ranged from a few months to a couple decades on the strength. Few agencies have access to a multimillion-dollar exam facility such as this, so lesser grooming academies are simply held in empty parking lots.

The grade we attended was surprisingly casual — not a compatible in sight. Ten of these classes are held each twelvemonth, with a maximum of 12 students and a educatee-to-teacher ratio of 3:ane to ensure plenty of one-on-one preparation—good luck finding a ratio like that at a racing school. And every bit Lt. David Halliday, the officer in charge, reminded us, "It'due south not a racing schoolhouse," then going fast isn't the goal hither — it's safety. That'due south why the class is more than just loftier-speed maneuvers and 10 of the twoscore hours are spent in the classroom, hearing some startling statistics and watching a couple of amusing how-non-to-drive video clips from bodily police pursuits.

The driving exercises starting time with car-command basics and build on one some other, and students must pass each segment earlier progressing to the next. The offset few exercises are common to one-24-hour interval defensive-driving classes for novices: a six-cone serpentine form; a "controlled braking" practise that teaches brake modulation and requires students to alter lanes around a row of cones while braking with the anti-lock disabled; and "evasive maneuvering," in which students drive directly toward a wall of cones until the teacher abruptly signals which direction to go around them. Students must then change lanes to the indicated side while navigating through another row of cones.

On day 2 nosotros were introduced to the 95-cone monster the instructors lovingly refer to as "precision maneuvering," which is notable not but because it's one of the most difficult exercises of the calendar week but the slowest as well. To pass, you must perform a sequence of forward and reverse moves through an intimidating seven-foot-wide lane of cones that stretches the length of a football game field, likewise equally plough around in an 11-foot-wide box in the middle. Hitting more than 5 cones, or exceed the two-minute, ten-second fourth dimension limit, and you neglect. Not surprisingly, this is a major stumbling cake for participants, and nosotros virtually lost a educatee to it during our week. Think it's hard to stay in your lane on the highway? Those are 12 feet wide; this one leaves less than five inches for error on either side of the Ford Crown Victoria cruisers nosotros were piloting at the school.

In class, we learned how important this sort of training is due to the fact that Michigan'due south 660-police-vehicle fleet averages 1 crash a day, and a large percentage of those are depression-speed, parking-lot-type maneuvers non high-speed chases. And half of those accidents happen while drivers are in opposite. This sort of precision behind the wheel would be a useful skill for everyone to possess, just we suspect at least 50 percent of licensed drivers don't have it.

Equally with whatever exercise throughout the week, if a student doesn't pass in the allotted window of time, he or she gets an additional hour of ane-on-i practice with an instructor. And then the pupil is retested, and a second failure results in dismissal. For a recruit, that'south the end of the road. An in-service officeholder's fate — desk-bound duty, perhaps? — is determined past the home office, and he or she will likely be given another risk to pass this driving school. Well-nigh one educatee per form, or almost 10 per centum, doesn't make information technology.

Our side by side practice was "skid control," using specially prepared cruisers with a second brake organisation that operates solely on the rear wheels; those brakes are activated via a switch controlled past the instructor in the passenger'due south seat and crusade a skid. The pad is almost equally glace as ice — it's h2o-covered Jennite sealant — and caryatid yourself for oversteer, the give-and-take for sliding rear wheels. The goal is to grab the spin with quick and appropriate steering inputs.

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TOM DREW

This was not new for us, and we were hankering to get at the ix-plow, 1.0-mile road course, where high-speed pursuit-blazon driving is taught, despite the fact that we were piloting 4200-pound Crown Vics with truly wooden steering (the Mazda CX-7 SUV nosotros were commuting in felt far more limber and is 300 pounds lighter). The state-police force track has a little chip of everything: a 90-degree left-hander, an ess-turn department, a constant-radius sweeper, a high-speed kink, and a patience-required decreasing-radius bend.

This department started out with a classroom primer on the proper line of travel and apex locations for each plough, which may sound familiar. Here's the departure: There'south a double-yellow line down the middle of the road grade, every bit well equally a white fog line along both edges, but as on public roads. The emphasis is to go chop-chop simply safely, and we were instructed to use no more than 80 pct of the car'southward and the commuter'due south power, so in that location would be wiggle room when the unexpected happens. Using the route shoulder is fair game — as it is in real pursuits — but cross the eye line or get off-road during the evaluation laps, and the driver is disqualified. We were somewhat surprised that not a unmarried officer in the form had ever been to a route form, although turning laps using just half the roadway was a first for united states of america, as well. To pass the iv-flight-lap exam, a student must hit 27 of the 36 apexes as well as keep lap times below ane:16.0 in the dry and 1:23.0 in the moisture.

We got almost two inches of pelting on our evaluation twenty-four hours, and although many of the students were bummed, this driver, who is accepted to track events beingness canceled for rain, was able to gain experience practicing high-speed cornering in very wet conditions. That was a good conviction boost and definitely more exciting, trying to avoid the water-filled ruts going into Turn Eight — the high-speed kink — and riding out some hydroplaning moments on the go out, hoping to osculation the center line and nothing more than. The time target wasn't all that challenging, though, and nosotros clicked off lap after lap about 5 seconds quicker than required.

The highlight of the class — other than passing — was the "night pursuit" exercise, which was made more interesting in our case past a slushy snowfall. With lights and sirens blazing, ii students in two pursuit units attempted to hunt an instructor piloting the "rabbit" vehicle, which ran madly in any direction it pleased. We couldn't become anywhere near the instructor, but fifty-fifty tougher was keeping upward with communication over the police force radio — calling out every turn, constantly reporting the rabbit's location.

Then we rode along in the rabbit vehicle with teacher Sgt. Ron Gromak, and subsequently rapidly confusing the two students in pursuit, he did a 180-degree plow and buzzed them in contrary. At 40 or then mph — still going backward — he's pulling away from the 2 students when he says calmly: "Y'all have to be existent smooth in reverse." He's chuckling every bit he slows for an upcoming corner, apexes perfectly, and gets back on the gas. It must exist his favorite role, nosotros idea.

He afterwards explained that more than in one case he's had a cocky recruit who thinks the time requirement around the road form is also difficult, so Gromak volition turn a couple laps in less than the required time in reverse. That commonly clears things upwardly.

All of this merely cemented what nosotros had been thinking all calendar week: that the Michigan State Police instructors are every bit accomplished behind the bicycle as whatever high-performance driving instructor nosotros've encountered elsewhere. What about the cops? Based on our week, we'd have to conclude that the boilerplate driving-school graduate probably has similar driving and car-control abilities to the average Michigan State Trooper.

Only that however left one question: How would an off-duty constabulary officeholder reply to an overly zealous cop who has pulled him over? Ane of the troopers, who naturally wishes to remain nameless, offered a existent-life example when he once ended up on the other side of the law: "Are you gonna give me the lecture or the ticket, 'crusade I don't demand both?" Guess which ane he got.

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TOM DREW

COP-Auto SHOWDOWN

Not unlike Car and Driver, the Michigan State Police accept been testing cars since the 1950s. Back so, they automatically purchased the lowest-priced cruiser on the market and tested its acceleration, summit speed, and braking capabilities. But in 1974, the competing cruisers were just $4.45 apart, and the country wondered if the actress few bucks actually bought a improve law machine.

That dilemma caused Michigan'due south testing to evolve into an annual roundup of all available police force-package vehicles. For 2007, 19 vehicles — ix pursuit-set vehicles, 7 not-pursuit trucks and SUVs, and three motorcycles — were tested in vi categories over a three-day menses.

The same instructors who run the driving schools are also in charge of this testing, one of the nearly highly regarded of these programs in the state (another renowned one is the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department). Head honcho Lt. David Halliday says some 30,000 copies of the resulting 120-page report (bachelor online at www.michigan.gov/msp) are read by agencies throughout the U.S. and Canada, every bit well as faraway places like Guam and Commonwealth of australia, and claims the study directly affects $one.5 billion in law-automobile sales, a market of about 70,000 vehicles per year in the U.S.

Standing-start acceleration, superlative-speed, and braking-from-60-mph tests are performed at the 3850-acre Chrysler Group proving basis in Chelsea, Michigan. Ergonomics are judged by 10 officers in 28 categories; things like seat condolement, ease of entry and go out, and visibility. Vehicle dynamics are assessed past a four-commuter average lap time around the challenging two.0-mile Grattan Raceway in Belding, Michigan — 1 of our favorite places to wring out cars.

The report doesn't cull an overall winner; each department can decide which tests are of import. Amongst the pursuit vehicles this twelvemonth, nevertheless, nearly every category was dominated by Dodge, with its mechanically similar Charger and Magnum. — DV

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