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35th Allen Park Street Fair underway

Posted at 5:07 PM, Aug 05, 2016
and last updated 2016-08-05 17:57:36-04

The 35th Allen Park Street Fair is underway August 5th and 6th.

There is food, music and shopping.

You will also find Allen Park police officers in their own booth.

Police officers are offering folks at the Allen Park Street Fair a chance to try out their training simulator, to give the community an idea of the quick decisions they have to make everyday.

Detective Jim Thorburn explained how the simulator works.

"It's an in progress scenario that can be changed at will to however the police officer acts or doesn't act," he said.

Users will find themselves in common scenarios, like a traffic stop.

"Ask them for ID, they may reach really fast pull out their wallet, reach really fast for a gun. They may not even listen to you and start walking away its your job to react to them."

You may accidentally shoot an innocent person, justifiably shoot the bad guy or shoot yourself.

Sgt. Wayne Albright explains how a scenario with a "bad guy."

"He still was able to grab his gun and point it at me before I got a first round of even though it was a good shoot," Albright explained. "That just shows you how quickly things can turn around."

Bryan Young decided to try the simulator and quickly learned how hard difficult police work can be.

He said, "They are out there to protect us and when you are in that situation that they are in they only have a split second to decide."

Thornburn added, "How fast things can escalate or de-escalate and how quick you need to react as a police officer based on very little information."

It's $5 to try out there scenarios.

The money will go to a scholarship fund for students who want a career in law enforcement.

They are trying to reach out to the community and sell T-shirts.

The proceeds of the sale will also go into the scholarship fund.

"We are at a time where criminal justice, it's hard for us to hire people, Thorburn added. "There is not a lot of people that want to be a police officer anymore. And this is just us giving back to the community. We work here. We love living here. And we like to be part of its community."

The T-shirts $15 for youth sizes and $20 for adults.

They will be available throughout the street fair or the Allen Park Facebook page: https://m.facebook.com/AllenParkPoliceDepartment/