A driver navigates a decommissioned law enforcement vehicle through an emergency vehicle operation training course on March 11, 2026, in Pierre. (Photo courtesy of South Dakota Department of Public Safety)
By: Meghan O’Brien
PIERRE, S.D. (South Dakota Searchlight) — After weeks spent split on property tax relief, economic development and other policy decisions, some state legislators seized an opportunity to blow off steam at a lawmakers’ day taking place just north of the capital city.
The South Dakota Highway Patrol and Department of Public Safety hosted about a dozen lawmakers at the Emergency Vehicle Operation Course.
Highway Patrol troopers, police officers and sheriff’s deputies, among other first responders, must be successful in the course that requires high- and low-speed vehicle maneuvering, driving in reverse and disabling other vehicles. That’s according to South Dakota Highway Patrol Lt. Dave Campbell.
For most of the participants, it’s a weeklong experience.
“They have a classroom section, and then a testing session where they have to perform every exercise,” Campbell said.
Law enforcement training classes are the largest, Campbell said, often with more than 20 students. Instructors get certified in Washington state, where Campbell said he gets ideas for new ways to challenge students.
The cars on the course are old Highway Patrol vehicles. Some of them are outfitted with metal bumpers as protection so the cars don’t get damaged beyond repair.
Madison Republican Rep. Tim Walburg is one of the lawmakers who came to test his skills on the course during the final week of the legislative session. He’s a former Lake County sheriff and currently works as a paramedic. Walburg hasn’t done a course like this one since the early 2000s — “a hot minute,” he said.
“This has changed a little bit,” Walburg added.
The course has speed sensors with lights to point drivers in one direction or the other at the last second to test reactions. Those light-up arrows only appear if a driver is going fast enough to trigger them. Walburg said when he was getting certified, he relied on an instructor to call out a direction to turn the vehicle.
The course was recently resurfaced thanks to a $2.4 million appropriation from lawmakers in 2021, Campbell said. Legislator days like this one help build relationships between law enforcement trainers and lawmakers.
“A lot of them hadn’t seen what their blessing went towards,” Campbell said. “And then they come out and they see it, they have fun, and they’re like, ‘What else do you guys need? What’s a future need that you guys might have?’”
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