As a developmental tool, the simulation exercise is intended to help trainees gain structured experience in supervising, planning, decisionmaking, counseling, and communicating. The course bridges the experience-learning gap through structured role-play. This not only requires a trainee to think through a typical 'sergeant's problem' but also to experience living with and analyzing the consequences of a given decision. A second method used to bridge the experience-learning gap is the use of an 'in-basket' exercise. This device presents a trainee with a number of hypothetical written situations that must be addressed and resolved in writing. The trainee's responses are later evaluated and serve as the basis for a thorough debriefing. The most significant exercise is designed to simulate a day in the life of a busy station sergeant. Following a short introductory briefing, the trainees report to their offices to face a basket full of correspondence, a number of expected and unexpected visitors, a telephone call that involves new problems, and a formal press interview, complete with telephone cameras. An evaluation of the course has indicated it to be sufficiently close to a sergeant's working experiences to be worthwhile as a prepromotion training device.