Wanna play cops and robbers?

The Washington Post had an awesome article earlier this week about playing cops and robbers.

I'm serious.

They called it "threat theater." Basically, some federal law enforcement and protective agencies in the area hire actors to help them train new recruits in near real-life scenarios. Sometimes, it's in a controlled environment. Other times, it's out in public. They call it "interactive behavioral simulations." (That's a fancy way of saying "role playing.")

Here's a good intro from the article, titled "For Security Trainees, a Threat Theater":

Every day, as Washingtonians go about their overt lives, the FBI, CIA, Capitol Police, Secret Service and U.S. Marshals Service stage covert dramas in and around the capital where they train. Officials say the scenarios help agents and officers integrate the intellectual, physical and emotional aspects of classroom instruction. Most exercises are performed inside restricted compounds. But they also unfold in public parks, suburban golf clubs and downtown transit stations.

Curtain up on threat theater -- a growing, clandestine art form. Joseph Persichini, Jr., assistant director of the FBI's Washington field office, says, "What better way to adapt agents or analysts to cultural idiosyncrasies than role play?"

The article is HERE--you have to click through a few pages, but it has pictures. A one-page print view is HERE.

The article has a video from one of the psychotherapists:

(Link to video on the WaPo website)

Interesting, eh? Now it makes me wonder if the bust I blogged about earlier was real or not....