No blue lights. No siren. No rapid acceleration.

But the time may come when police officers need to climb behind the wheel of a big yellow school bus and steer a load of passengers to safety.

Patrolman Randy Naylor, who has driven a school bus before, was one of 56 Vicksburg Police Department officers trained during the past week to drive a bus in case of an emergency that requires a quick evacuation.

The training &#8220came as a result of what happened during Katrina and the fact that there were a large number of buses there that could have taken people to safety and they weren’t utilizing them,” said Deputy Chief Richard O’Bannon. &#8220We thought, ‘We’ve got some policemen; we’ve got buses.’ That could be a good combination in the event we ever have to move large numbers of people.”

Officers in Mississippi are required to complete academy training at a state facility, and driving a sedan is part of the curriculum. The trickier elements of handling a school bus, namely driving in reverse and controlling the wide left and right turns, present a different challenge.

&#8220It’s the same training we give our regular drivers,” said Fred Barnum, assistant transportation supervisor for the Vicksburg Warren School District, who trains the school district’s drivers and helped train the officers during a three-day period at Vicksburg Municipal Airport.

The police officers won’t be certified, Barnum, said, but they will be familiar enough with the vehicles, which can hold 45 or 50 people, that they could get the job done.

&#8220We’re not trying to make them bus drivers,” said Lt. Walter Beamon. &#8220We’re trying to get them trained to handle the vessels in an emergency if they need to.”

Funding for the training came from the police department’s monthly in-service training budget, said O’Bannon. A bus was donated by the school district for the exercises.

&#8220Of course, you hope it never happens,” Naylor said. &#8220But it pays to be prepared. It’s like the old saying, ‘Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.’”