Firing Away: HUPD Hones its Target Skills

"Police! Don't move. Don't move," shouts Officer Louis Favreau of the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD).

In the darkened room, illuminated only by flashing police strobes, he can barely see the gun-wielding man in front of him.

"Don't move!" Favreau shouts once more. Suddenly, 16 shots echo through the room.

"Clear!" He shouts as he empties his weapon.

The lights in the room come on, and it quickly becomes evident that Favreau hit his target with all but one of the shots. The paper outline of a man is riddled with holes.

In HUPD's windowless shooting range, the instructors are ready for another day of training, honing a deadly skill they hope they will never have to use.

Home on the Range

One of the least known resources of the University, the HUPD firing range is hidden in the basement of 175 N. Harvard St. Originally built as the firing range for Harvard's battalion of Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC), it was turned over to HUPD in the 1970s when the University ended its affiliation with ROTC.

Five shooting bays allow officers to shoot at targets up to 50 feet away. A mock-up of a house stands in one corner, for hostage scenarios. The thick cement back wall of the range is pock-marked with bullet holes. At the wall's base, in piles of sand, lie hundreds of flattened bullets.

HUPD's firearms training is one of the most rigorous programs in the Commonwealth, says Sergeant Scott Simas, HUPD's rangemaster.

Officers go through 40 hours of firearms training in the police academy and then another 40 hours of training at HUPD before they begin patrolling.

HUPD issues each of its beat officers a .40-caliber Glock 22 pistol with a fifteen round magazine--a powerful handgun that is the only firearm the department allows officers to carry.

The guns themselves are a rarely used last resort, instructors say. The University only authorizes using deadly force to save the life of an officer or another person, and HUPD stresses at every level of training that guns should only be used when a lethal threat is imminent.

"God forbid you ever have to pull that trigger," Favreau says.

No HUPD officer has fired a hostile shot in decades, department officials say. However, shootings in other college environments are not rare. Just two weeks ago, two officers at the University of California at San Diego shot and wounded a knife-wielding man in one of the university's dormitories.

Favreau says the department is lucky to receive so much firearms training. Most departments in the Commonwealth, including the Boston police, pass the state's firearms test only twice a year--HUPD officers do so four times a year, and also go through eight hours of additional training each year.

"We always try to push the envelope," instructor Scot Green explains.

Simas says HUPD trains intensively to ensure that officers are able to hit their targets. FBI statistics show 84 percent of all shots fired by police miss their intended target.

"The more comfortable you are with the firearm in your hand, the better trained you are, the more likely you are to make the right decision--to shoot or not," Simas says.

Finding the Target

Right now, HUPD is right in the middle of its annual weapons retraining. Four officers a day face the instructors for eight hours of intensive training.

The officers undergoing re-qualification are briefed on the latest weapon technology, including a report from Europe about cell phones modified to fire .22-caliber bullets.

After the safety briefing, the officers take their places in the shooting bays.

"We try to mix it up a little each year," Favreau says. "This year we're having them qualify as soon as they walk through the door."

Through 60 rounds and countless magazine changes, Detective Sergeant Richard Mederos and Officer Christopher P. Bulger, who were taking the qualifying test yesterday, fired from behind barricades, moving, standing, crouching, with arms locked and firing from the hip.

In one exercise, they fire two shots at three different targets. In the next, they fire at three targets from varying distances. Each exercise is timed and a hand-held computer records the time between shots.

Circular tongues of flame leap from the barrels and the sound reverberates through the thick walled room. With the shooting done, the smell of cordite hangs heavy in the air.

Both pass.

"We've got some shooters here today," jokes Favreau, one of the day's instructors.

The qualification test is part of a department-wide competition. The three highest scorers in the department will receive an extra vacation day, and competition is tough.

Overall, Bulger ties with Sergeant Robert Kotowski for accuracy, and bests him in time, taking the lead. But with another 30 officers to go, the top spot is still anyone's guess.

After the qualification test, the training begins.

The officers fire "double taps," two shots in quick succession and change targets. Then they fire at different targets quickly, as instructors scream out which cut-outs are targets and which are innocent bystanders. At each stage, the instructors have the officers practice magazine changes.

"When you're engaged, with the adrenaline pumping, you can get so locked in that when you're magazine is empty it can really break your concentration," Green explains.

The day culminates in officer-to-officer combat. HUPD has each officer suit up in a facemask, neck protector and bullet-proof vest.

The range uses specially modified Glocks and "simunition" to simulate live-fire exercises. The Glocks fire small rubber bullets with paint-covered tips to mark where each round hits.

The officers practice suppression fire and face-to-face shootouts. The rounds leave large welts and blotches of orange paint where they hit but are not otherwise dangerous.

"It definitely adds a different perspective when your target is shooting back at you," Simas laughs grimly.

At the end of the long day, the exhausted officers reload their weapons with "street ammo."

In its standard-issue weapons HUPD uses hollow-point bullets, which expand on impact for "controlled expansion and penetration," Green explains.

The bullets, while powerful enough to stop a threat, do not pass through targets--reducing the possibility of injuring innocent by-standers.

--Staff writer Garrett M. Graff can be reached at ggraff@fas.harvard.edu.