MIDDLETOWN – Police have a difficult and sometimes dangerous job. How dangerous? Consider the reaction time problem. Sometimes a police officer will have to identify a threat, decide how deadly that threat is, secure their own sidearm, raise it to firing position, and then decide whether to shoot, and how many shots should be fired, all in a second or less.

How to judge such things?

This past Monday and Tuesday, the Orange County Police Chiefs Association, in conjunction with the Orange County district attorney's office, held seminars on the issues surrounding police/civilian encounters that involve deadly force. The training classroom at the Orange County Police Academy was packed for seminars that included a lecture on the workings of grand juries, as was a later "live fire" exercise in which audience members were put through their paces in a police training room across the street.

District attorney David Hoovler opened it all by welcoming several police chiefs from around the county, including Crawford's Dominic Blasko. He raised figures from a recent Washington Post article on the topic of police shootings, noting that in 2015 police shot 991 people, 782 of whom were carrying weapons. He noted that mental illness and drug use play significant roles in this, then moved on to racial breakdowns: of those 991, 495 were white, 258 were black, 178 were Hispanic, 38 were "other" and 28 "unknown."

Hoovler stated that the news media does not present all the information surrounding shootings. A video was shown, made by an Oregon police force, which added that not only video cameras can present all the facts due to limitations of time and camera angles.

Executive assistant district attorney Robert Conflitti took over and talked about grand jury proceedings and what they're for. He addressed how often they are employed and what powers they have, including the fact that about thirty percent of felony cases in Orange County currently go to a grand jury, or about a thousand each year. In police shootings, he said, perhaps the most crucial element is the idea of self defense. Citizens in a deadly force confrontation have a duty to retreat if they possibly can. Police do not, and in fact may need to confront someone who is threatening to harm or kill another person. Furthermore, a person may not use physical force to resist arrest by police no matter whether the arrest is illegal or not.

Finally, everyone headed for the "Live Fire," where the training police recruits undergo involves the wielding of specially made pistols and shotguns as they cope with interactive video presentations of dangerous situations. Audience members were handed an $8,000 video-calibrated Glock pistol and placed in the firing line.

An office hostage situation, in which an angry employee held a gun on a manager inside an office with a glass interior window, came up. The angry gun wielder became aware of the "police" presence and yelled that he should be left alone to confront the manager. He hid behind the door. A life or death decision had to be made the moment the man reappeared and one audience member opened fire, missing all four of his shots and breaking the glass window. The angry man then shot the audience member.

As the scene unfolded, the danger and difficulty of such police work came home to all in attendance. Those attending the seminars left with a much better idea of the split second nature of these confrontations and just how tricky police work can be.

As well as grand jury work... and jurisprudence in general.