An additional day of training is devoted to a firearms training simulator, a device called FATS, which offers recruits more than 200 scenes and situations. Armed with a laser-guided pistol and a canister of pepper spray wired to a computer, cadets are shown realistic footage of ferocious street fights or domestic violence in which husbands are beating wives. In a manner reminiscent of Choose Your Own Adventure books, an instructor manipulates the outcome of these scenes depending on how well or poorly a participant reacts.

It is almost impossible to comprehend the amount and the complexity of the rapid-fire information that a young recruit is asked to assimilate in seconds. In one FATS situation, “Drunk Man With Baby,” a weaving figure appears in an alley carrying an infant in a car seat. Within 10 seconds, he is already upon you, drawing a machete from the car seat. The man ignores all orders to stop and to place the baby on the ground. Then, with one hand, he suddenly lifts the machete to strike while holding tightly to the baby with the other. You have no choice but to shoot him and hope for the best.

Experts on the use of deadly force contend that only highly stressful training like this, which simulates the tunnel vision and the loss of time perception that often come with tension, can prepare recruits for the nerve-racking work of actual policing.

“Static target practice teaches you how to fire a gun, but it’s not really relevant to the real world,” said Geoffrey P. Alpert, a professor of criminology at the University of South Carolina. “You want officers in stressful situations to revert to their training, and unless you do scenario and role-play training, they’re not going to have the experience to fall back on.”

Few people criticize the quality of the training that New York City’s recruits and officers receive, but quantity seems to be a different matter. Beyond their classroom work, cadets practice real-world situations for only three days during their stint in the academy. Full-fledged officers go to Rodman’s Neck two days out of the year to shoot 150 rounds on the range and practice more dynamic techniques, like firing rapidly, to simulate the adrenaline rush of gunfights. The officers get a third day of training at the department’s Tactical Village.

“The truth is they should do a lot more,” said one former instructor at Rodman’s Neck, who spoke anonymously because he did not want to offend friends who were still on the force. “Target practice is meaningless — it’s not a moving person shooting back at you.”

The former instructor said that officers needed more instruction in realistic and dynamic shooting, or what he called running and gunning.