FORT CARSON, Colo. -- Sgts. Steven Houston and Vidal Zamora weren't sure what to expect when they pulled over a pair of suspected felons along a dirt road in a valley at Fort Carson's Wilderness Road Training Complex Nov. 12, 2015.
As blue lights flashed, the military policemen exited their police cruiser with simulated weapons drawn and began issuing commands to the role-playing assailants over an in-car loudspeaker.
"Show me your hands," Houston shouted. "Exit the vehicle with your hands up. Step back and spread your feet."
Houston and Zamora then carefully followed their training through the process of subduing the suspected felons as 148th Military Police Detachment, 759th MP Battalion, evaluators studied both the scene and the Soldiers' actions.
Ultimately, Houston and Zamora handcuffed the suspects and prepared them for transport without further incident.
This high-risk traffic stop was just one of many scenarios 148th MPs worked through during a five-day field training exercise at the complex.
An hour later, the company's MP investigators arrived on a scene a half mile away to conduct an investigation following a simulated domestic violence and assault scene.
"Our traffic accident investigators, physical security inspectors and military police investigators are all working through (these) training scenarios, while our Special Reaction Team (SRT) will also conduct night training during the exercise," said Capt. Zacharie Wert, 148th MP Detachment commander. "Since we also conduct a law-enforcement mission on post, we don't get to conduct this training often, but we do try to work through it annually."
Traffic accident investigators took measurements, collected evidence and drew schematics of accident scenes before filing reports about the speeds and actions of drivers involved in the simulated accident. They also worked scenes involving a hit-and-run traffic crash.
Meanwhile, the unit's military police investigators interviewed witnesses at the domestic violence scenario.
The 148th MP Detachment is the unit responsible for providing these specialized law enforcement capabilities on post, so it's important that they train and gain experience in specialized scenarios.
"Every scenario we encounter is different because everyone involved in a crime scene has their own bias," said Sgt. Ashley Robbins, military police investigator (MPI), a five-year veteran MP who has worked as an MPI for 18 months.
Robbins and Sgts. Lorenzo Jones and Julian Grooms arrived at a scene involving a husband, wife and an alleged boyfriend. The parties involved were all bruised, bloodied and agitated. Robbins said it was important for the investigative team to calm the scene and manage people in order to determine the trail of events.
"This training scenario is very realistic," Robbins said. "We interview everyone, try to discern who is telling the truth, then go back and interview everyone again. We also encountered a ton of evidence that must be processed. These types of scenes could take anywhere from a couple of hours to a couple of days to investigate and it could take another few weeks or even months to resolve."
Later that night, the unit's SRT also conducted a low light certification exercise where team members trained in near blackout conditions.
Finally, the 148th MP also conducted incident management training, which involved operational personnel and senior leaders.
"We work through some worst-case scenarios that simulate law enforcement issues that can occur on (post) such as a lost child or an accident at the railhead, where we would need to secure a scene and set up an incident command," Wert said. "The focus of this FTX was to exercise our different sections within the detachment and their ability to perform their duties in a downrange environment. This gives us some dedicated training time."
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