COLUMBUS (WCMH) – Every day, police officers are put in dangerous and possibly life-changing situations. The Ohio State University Police Department gave students in the community, a chance to experience that stress first hand.   Over the last four weeks OSU students, faculty and staff got to learn what it was like to be a police officer.   Devante Potter participated in the mock scenario.

“Steve can I get you to take that if off your belt and sit it on the table,” said Potter.

Potter had to decide the officer was playing a good guy or a criminal.  That split decision could have cost Potter his life.  Turns out, the officer was playing a man burglarizing the building, stealing cash from the vending machines, and had a gun.

“I’m thinking the class is pretty rad.  So far, we learned a lot from the police’s perspective on things. I never really experienced that,” said Potter.

Student Marianela Feliu was in a similar scenario as Potter.

“My reaction time was just way slower,” said Feliu.

The classroom found out the job isn’t as easy as it looks.  Officer Cassandra Shaffer said both the participants and officers are learning at the same time.

“The biggest purpose of this class is invoke conversation . To give us a platform to talk to our community. listen to their concerns . Help them kind of identify and understand why we as police officers do some of the things that we do on  scene,” said Shaffer.