At a time when there are calls across the nation for better policing, a Bronx college has started using a lifelike training tool to better prepare potential future officers for the job. NY1's Erin Clarke filed the following report.

Officers approach a car and ask the driver for his license and registration. The passenger becomes agitated and is asked to step out of the vehicle. As he does, shots are fired.

This isn't real, but it could be.

"Even though it's on a screen, you feel like you're right there. Your heart is pumping. You don't know what to do," said Kasey Rivera, a student at Monroe College.

Criminal justice students at Monroe College are using these scenarios generated on a law enforcement training simulator as part of their education.

"They're going to get the real-life experience of certain situations, like when to shoot, when not to shoot," said professor Keith Singer.

The hope is that they'll be better prepared to begin training as police officers if they are hired by the NYPD or other departments.

Nationwide, there has been a renewed focus on how police officers are trained following a series of high-profile officer-involved shootings.

"Before you actually have the experience in the street, you will have the experience here,” said Franchesska Jones, a student at Monroe College. "And luckily here, we can commit errors that we can fix or that we can later handle the situations differently. Once you step out to the real world, it's a life-or-death situation."

Although the simulator looks very much like a game, it isn't.

"This is strictly a training simulator to let our students feel how it's like to be a police officer, feel how it's like to give verbal commands, feel how it's like to make critical thinking decisions," Singer said.

That includes decisions like whether to draw your gun or to reach for a non-lethal weapon like a taser.

I tried the simulator, and it wasn't easy. The gun was heavier than I expected, I was anxious and although I shot an armed burglar, I failed to cover my partner.

The simulator is meant for students, but others have tried it.

"They see what it's like from an officer's point of view. They see what they deal with," said Nicholas Read, a student at Monroe College.

It's insight that can put better trained officers on the streets, and students and professors say they can improve police-community relations.