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How Virtual Reality Is Revolutionizing Police Training

VR has the potential to transform police training, allowing police officers to improve their skills and arrive at more positive outcomes through immersive experiences.

Law enforcement officers face various complex and challenging situations where they must respond to high-risk incidents involving armed perpetrators. Unfortunately, police officers in the US only receive less than six months of police training—which is where virtual reality comes in.

Using VR helps augment the need for more in-depth training in a safe and immersive training environment. It also helps further hone their skills, allowing them to effectively manage a more comprehensive array of situations, including highly stressful and unpredictable scenarios.

In this article, we’ll explore virtual reality’s role in police training, its benefits, and some real-life applications.

Why VR Is an Effective Training Tool

VR has many police training applications, allowing officers to improve their interactions with their communities and help them develop the necessary reactions in a more controlled environment. It provides law enforcement officers with immersive experiences close to real-life situations, which can help improve their learning and performance compared to more traditional training methods. With virtual reality police training, users can interact with a simulated environment that reacts accordingly, making them feel like they’re really there.

As a police training tool, VR can be used to enhance existing aspects of training, according to a study by Laura Giessing of Heidelberg University. It has the potential to help officers become better equipped to face critical incidents on duty by acquiring skills and tactics that can be readily applied when facing high-stress situations.

Benefits of VR in Police Training

Aside from helping law enforcement officers further develop skills such as communication, de-escalation, or intervention, it can also help them build empathy. Developing empathy allows officers to become more effective on duty by better understanding what a particular subject is going through.

Using VR as a police training tool has several key benefits, including:

Officer Safety

Police officers face complex and potentially dangerous scenarios in their line of work. Using VR for police training allows them to immerse in those scenarios without the risk of physical harm.

Access to Realistic Simulations

Virtual reality can simulate realistic scenarios that elicit the same reactions as their real-world counterparts. These simulations give officers the opportunity to continuously expose themselves to the simulations and gain as much experience as possible before facing similar situations in the field.

Customizable Scenarios

The great thing about using virtual reality in police training is that it’s a scalable and customizable solution. This means that training academies or organizations can create custom scenarios that align with changing needs and industry best practices.

Enhanced Decision-Making Capabilities

By exposing officers to realistic simulations, they can hone their critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills. VR training can also be modified to simulate increasingly high-stress or high-risk situations, helping officers learn how to effectively handle and de-escalate such scenarios at a more manageable pace.

Focus on Evaluation and Debriefing

VR can also help officers learn how to best evaluate a scenario and execute more in-depth debriefing sessions. That’s because users can replay different scenarios, allowing them to analyze each segment in more detail.

Real-World Examples of Police VR Training

Many police departments and organizations in the US and abroad already use VR for police training. These include:

Sacramento Police Department

This department uses immersive video simulators to recreate real-world scenarios, providing its officers with cultural competency and implicit bias training. Officers are also educated about proper decision-making and peer intervention.

Los Alamos Police Department

In 2021, the Los Alamos Police Department started applying VR technology to train its officers in more effective de-escalation tactics.

Mexico City

Mexico City established the first virtual reality training center for officers in Latin America. One of the goals of the training center is to help officers enhance their reflexes in high-risk or stressful emergency scenarios to improve their performance.

Gwent Police

Gwent Police officers benefit from a VR training program that teaches them how to respond to and make better decisions in stressful situations. The program has 10 scenarios based on real-life problems that police officers frequently encounter.

Dutch Police

The Dutch Police developed a VR simulation game that trains officers to complete different scenarios. This VR training also provides bias training for Dutch Police officers, helping them become more knowledgeable and better prevent ethnic profiling.

Quelle:

How Virtual Reality Is Revolutionizing Police Training

25. August 2023 0 comment

Examples

VR Simulation Allows Police To Train Using Real Tasers

VR technology and wrist trackers combine to offer a next-level training program.

Axon, a weapons technology company based out of Arizona, today launched a new VR simulation designed to train law enforcement officers in de-escalation tactics by immersing them in realistic scenarios they may face out in the field. Not only that, but trainees can actually bring their TASER energy weapons and training firearms with them in VR.

Axon’s simulator training is powered by the Vive Focus 3, HTC’s all-in-one VR headset in combination with the company’s Vive Wrist Trackers, which track the position of the user’s hands in VR. 1:1 replicas of these devices are recreated in VR to provide officers with the most realistic experience possible. Users can even hold Axon’s TASER 7 with two hands without the headset losing track thanks to the aforementioned wrist sensors.

“Axon’s VR Simulator Training works together with VIVE Wrist Tracker to bring safer law enforcement one step closer to reality,” said Dan O’Brien, GM Americas at HTC Vive in an official release. “Officers can now use the exact same objects in VR training sessions that they would out in the field. This makes VR training more natural, and ultimately more effective. We’re proud to be working together with Axon to help protect officers and civilians alike with effective VR training solutions.”

The platform is composed of three primary components (as provided by Axon):

Axon Academy
- Axon Academy houses a library of supplemental e-learning content and training materials designed to strengthen the skills learned in the Community Engagement and Simulator Training scenarios. For trainers, after-action reports stored on Academy provide performance and progress metrics, insight into an officer’s decisions, and new opportunities for coaching and program development.
Community Engagement Training
- Community Engagement Training focuses on developing skills, empathy, and communication for engaging with individuals in scenarios involving mental health, trauma, peer intervention, and more. Through these experiences, trainees get to understand the perspectives of both the officer and the civilian and see how different modes of communication can result in de-escalation, which can influence calls for service.

Simulator Training
- Firing Range – Basic: In this scenario, trainees learn safe and effective deployment of weapons. Trainees learn to operate TASER 7 energy weapons and replica training firearms in VR within an indoor range environment, then practice their skills on stationary targets from varying distances to improve accuracy, speed, tactical knowledge, and critical thinking skills.
- Firing Range – Intermediate: In this scenario, trainees deploy the TASER 7 energy weapon from various distances on moving subjects in an outdoor, nighttime setting. This fast-paced exercise helps trainees utilize safety features, recognize proper spread and probe placement on moving subjects, manage clothing disconnects, and achieve higher effectiveness when deploying TASER cartridges.

“We’re thrilled to be HTC’s exclusive partner for incorporating the VIVE Wrist Tracker into Axon’s latest training platform,” added Chris Chin, Axon VP of Immersive Technologies. “Accurate hand tracking is essential to training true-to-life and increasing learning retention, which carries over into the field and ultimately helps make our training more effective.”

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen VR technology used by law enforcement for training purposes. In 2020 we talked about how the Strasburg Police Department in Strasburg, Virginia was using VR technology for crisis de-escalation training. The supplemental training allowed officers the unique opportunity to experience confrontation from the perspective of a civilian.

Axon’s VR simulation training is already being used by the Phoenix Police Department. The company hopes that its technology can provide effective training solutions to law enforcement agencies while reducing the overall cost. The platform can be used anywhere at any time. Instructors can even conduct training sessions remotely with their students regardless of their physical locations.

For more information on Axon’s VR simulation training visit here.

Quelle:

VR Simulation Allows Police To Train Using Real Tasers

Image Credit: Axon

7. Juni 2022 0 comment

Examples

Maker of the Taser Acquires VR Studio to Bolster VR Police Training

Axon, the company best known for its Taser stun guns, has announced the acquisition of VR studio Foundry 45 which it says will bolster its VR training offerings.

Founded in 1993, Axon is the company behind the well known Taser stun guns which are employed by police and military forces around the world. In modern times the company has also focused on body cams and software for administration and management of public safety organizations. This month Axon announced the acquisition of the VR studio Foundry 45.

Formed in 2015, Foundry 45 has focused on combining VR with training and marketing. The company says it has built VR experiences for the likes of Delta Air Lines, The Weather Channel, AT&T, and others.

Axon, which has previously offered VR training, says the Foundry 45 team will merge with the existing Axon VR team to bolster the company’s ability to offer VR-based training solutions.

“Virtual reality is rapidly becoming a game-changing training tool across many industries, and the acquisition of Foundry 45 will help accelerate Axon to deliver innovative skills- and scenario-based training in public safety, and will catalyze Axon’s expansion into new growth markets globally,” the company said in its announcement of the acquisition.

Axon says its goal is to use “new immersive technologies to better prepare officers for real-life situations in the field. Axon’s VR products provide virtual reality content that helps officers develop critical thinking, de-escalation techniques and tactical skills across a diverse set of highly realistic scenarios.”

The acquisition appears to have been an all-stock deal, with Axon saying that 29,507 restricted stock units (valued around $3.87 million) were “granted to two individuals in connection with the acquisition,” with a vesting schedule of three years. Axon says the deal also includes up to an additional 15,249 restricted stock units (valued around $2 million) if the company’s VR unit achieves certain performance-based goals.

Axon—which calls its stun guns “non-lethal”—understandably has a vested interest in making sure the users of its Taser products are well trained. Not just for the safety of users and targets but also for liability and the company’s image, which hinges on claims that its weapons result in no serious injury in the vast majority of cases where they are deployed.

One unfortunate incident that recently brought the Taser into the public eye was the 2021 killing of Daunte Wright in Minnesota, in which an officer claimed to have accidentally pulled out and fired her firearm instead of her Taser.

And that isn’t the only time that mistaking a gun for a Taser. According to the Star Tribune there have been at least 16 cases in the US where officers mistook the two weapons, four of which resulted in deaths.

The promise of VR training is not only that it can feel more real—which has studied benefits to lasting recall—but also that it can be cheaper and easier for public safety organizations to deploy, allowing for more training time with a broader range of scenarios and less overhead.

Whether or not VR training could have helped avert the tragic situations mentioned above isn’t clear, but one can surely hope.

Quelle:

Maker of the Taser Acquires VR Studio to Bolster VR Police Training

3. Mai 2022 0 comment

Examples

GMP pilots immersive learning software to help officers tackle CSE

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) is piloting an immersive learning programme to help officers deal with child sexual exploitation (CSE) cases.

The interactive video software, which uses cutting-edge gamified simulation technology, gives learners the opportunity to take on the roles of both officer and investigator in a simulated CSE case.

The modules feature a combination of written content and videos on a range of topics from unconscious bias to recognising risk factors, conducting thorough searches of a missing person’s home and using the appropriate language policy.

Each module concludes with an interactive scenario in which the user is given decisions to make as part of a simulated investigation. Their choice dictates what happens next in the simulation, giving officers the opportunity to test potential decision-based outcomes around complex investigations to improve problem-solving and decision-making in a safe learning environment.

The technology has been supplied by Bolton-based firm Near-Life.

The pilot was awarded £241,000 in funding from Innovate UK in November 2020 to accelerate the development of an interactive learning programme tailored to complex investigations – an area of police training identified as “challenging and of the greatest need”.

GMP says the technology will better track performance and learning-based outcomes, supporting an improved knowledge base that will allow it to share best practice examples of how digital simulations can support learning and training for complex investigations.

Superintendent Gareth Parkin said: “GMP are constantly looking at how to improve learning to help keep our communities safe. This interactive pilot project with Near-Life, which focuses on a very important topic, is a key part of our ongoing efforts to explore new ways in which innovation can support our work.”

Mike Todd, chief executive officer of Near-Life, explained: “Through our work with GMP over the last 12 months, we’ve really got to understand, in practice, the potential that using a gamified simulation approach has for dealing with a complex, sensitive and challenging topic like investigating potential CSE cases.

“The benefit to using immersive learning is that it allows you to create real-world scenarios and environments tailored to the needs of the user and the business.

“Research published by OFCOM found that it can improve knowledge retention by as much as 90 per cent.”

He added: “Undoubtedly, the learning supply chain is being disrupted. The pandemic has brought with it many new ways of working and immersive technology has been given the chance to really demonstrate how it can be a cost-effective way to improve engagement in ways that are customisable to the user, scalable and generate better results.”

Globally, the immersive training market was valued at $26.05 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach $463.7 billion by 2026.

Quelle:

GMP pilots immersive learning software to help officers tackle CSE

26. Januar 2022 0 comment

Examples

Documents Show Police Virtual Reality Training for ‚Mentally Ill Subjects‘

The scenarios in VirTra’s training include „Hot tub trio,“ where an officer encounters people „in the backyard hot tub, playing loud music and possibly smoking marijuana.“

Police forces are using virtual reality experiences to try and train their officers to respond to active shooter and mental health incidents, according to internal lesson plan documents.

The news shows the increasing use of virtual reality among law enforcement agencies, and the growing industry of firms willing to offer it. As well as VirTra, the company mentioned in these plans, government contractor Axon has also launched its own virtual reality training product.

„VirTra created immersive science-based training simulations designed to teach a variety of cognitive and psycho-motor skills ranging from de-escalation to judgmental use of force to situational awareness,“ the website for Arizona-based VirTra reads. „Whether your department is interested in a new firearm training simulator or police scenario training system, VirTra provides a variety of training solutions.“

Do you know anything else about virtual reality and police training? We’d love to hear from you. Using a non-work phone or computer, you can contact Joseph Cox securely on Signal on +44 20 8133 5190, Wickr on josephcox, OTR chat on jfcox@jabber.ccc.de, or email joseph.cox@vice.com.

Some of the scenarios that VirTra offers to customers include „Hot tub trio,“ where an officer encounters people „in the backyard hot tub, playing loud music and possibly smoking marijuana,“ and has to decide how to respond to someone confronting them with a liquor bottle, according to scenario descriptions found online. Another is „School Mayhem,“ where an officer has to respond to shots fired at a school. Some of the „EDP (emotionally disturbed person)“ scenarios are called „Mad Bomber,“ „Suicide By Cop,“ and „Bag Man.“ In practice, officers stand in front of a circular set of large monitors that play footage of the acted out incident; officers can then make decisions on when and whether to fire their weapon, for example.

The documents, lesson plan outlines obtained from the Orlando Police Department via a public record request, lay out in more detail what trainees will be asked to do.

„Develop a better understanding of how to interact with an Emotionally Disturbed Person,“ one of the plans reads under the heading „learning goal.“ They are asked to demonstrate proper de-escalation techniques such as „communicating calmly and clearly with the individual and reducing the immediacy of any threat so they more time, options and resources are available to the officer to resolve the situation with the least amount of force as possible.“ They are also asked to show the „deployment of less than lethal tools.“

In one scenario described in the lesson plans, „The trainee(s) should recognize that they are dealing with an emotionally disturbed person that keeps referring to himself as an astronaut for NASA. During the initial encounter the suspect will become agitated at the trainee(s) presence. The instructor can choose if the dialogue will be escalated or de-escalated, depending on the trainee(s) interaction. The instructor can also have the suspect comply or turn hostile depending on the trainee(s) actions. The suspect will respond to (spray, electronic control device, or lethal force).“

VirTra also has contracts with federal agencies such as Customs and Border Protection and the Secret Service, according to online contracting records viewed by Motherboard.

„I am happy to see the highlight of how agencies are using the system. We support and encourage the use of it as a highly effective tool for teaching and emphasizing de-escalation,“ Lon Bartel, VirTra’s director of training and curriculum, said in a statement.

Earlier this year Orlando launched a pilot program in which mental health professionals would be sent to nonviolent calls for service.

Quelle:

https://www-vice-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.vice.com/amp/en/article/dyvxdk/police-virtual-reality-training-virtra-mental-health

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14. Juli 2021 0 comment

Examples

VIVE Hardware Energizes “Best-in-Class” Military Training From Street Smarts VR

Case study from VIVE Enterprise and Street Smarts VR sheds light on military training.

Training has been a major use case for VR since its earliest days and the military has been there since day one. However, demand for VR training has only increased in the last few years, and innovation and collaboration among solution providers have increased along with it. VIVE Enterprise, with Street Smarts VR, highlighted one such use case in a recent case study.

The two companies work together to provide “best-in-class” training solution for the military and law enforcement personnel.

VIVE and Street Smarts VR

HTC VIVE is one of the leading consumer VR headset manufacturers. However, their cutting-edge computing has also made them a leader in enterprise VR. Innovations like eye-tracking, “inside-out tracking” for baseless full-body tracking, and wireless headset connectivity put their products in high demand.

military training case study VIVE + Street Smarts VR

Street Smarts VR is a VR simulations company specializing in military and law enforcement training. Standing contracts include the New York Police Department and the United States Airforce.

“When all put together, you get an advanced platform that teaches everything from de-escalation techniques to the appropriate use of force for small and large units,” explains the case study shared with ARPost.

What We Know About the Experience

Street Smarts VR creates immersive training scenarios that can be implemented by a single technician. This replaces training scenarios that would be expensive, dangerous, inefficient or impossible to carry out in physical environments. It also replaces 2D scenarios that are safer, more convenient, and more cost-effective than physical training, but are not as impactful.

According to the case study, the Department of Defense claims that VR training with Street Smarts VR saves an average of “40 hours per use, per year.” The system is currently being used to train 3,000 Airforce security forces across 12 units and 10 military bases.

Street Smarts VR + VIVE - military training

Implementing Street Smarts VR on VIVE hardware brings with it VIVE’s wireless PC-quality experiences, as well as their hand-tracking and eye-tracking for realistic training experiences and detailed analytics. Training scenarios even utilize “real-world weapons with an ever-expanding library of training scenarios” with automatic quarterly updates.

“In our field, simulators seem to come and go, but Street Smarts VR will be with us for a long time,” said an unnamed Air Force contact quoted in the case study.

The Military and VR

The case study by VIVE Enterprise and Street Smarts VR is illuminating but less than ground-breaking. As was mentioned at the top of the article, the military has been using XR in training and even in recruitment for a long time.

VIVE and Street Smarts VR case study military training

For example, the U.S. Navy is known to have partnered with DAQRI and Helios. There are even multi-day summits dedicated to military virtual training and simulation. Private contractor Lockheed Martin employs virtual training with Varjo, an Enterprise XR headset manufacturer based in Finland.

However, the VIVE Enterprise and Street Smarts VR case study does give more precise insights on things like implementation and hours-in-program that tell us a great deal more about how these training programs function at scale.

Quelle:

https://arpost.co/2021/03/15/vive-military-training-street-smart-vr/

24. März 2021 0 comment

Examples

Denver Police Believe VR Training Can Teach Empathy

Training part of $16 million contract for body cameras and Tasers.

During training next year, Denver police officers will strap virtual reality goggles to their faces and experience a simulation of what it is like to have a psychotic break and be approached by police.

The lights are overwhelming, every noise is louder and seems closer, and the panicked narration in your head overwhelms what other people on scene are trying to tell you. An officer approaches, but you are not able to communicate effectively to explain what’s going on or even see his face because he is shining a flashlight at you.

Then the module switches. Now you’re the police officer responding to the call and tasked with helping the person whose shoes you just virtually occupied. You walk through the scene again, prompted with multiple options of how to handle the situation. The goal is to de-escalate the scene.

All Denver police officers will be required to complete the virtual reality trainings beginning in 2021 as part of the department’s expanded training requirements. Officers will have access to trainings aimed at helping people with schizophrenia, autism and suicidal ideation. Axon Enterprises also plans to roll out new trainings focused on helping people who have dementia, post-traumatic stress disorder or are hard of hearing.

“The reason that we are pursuing it is empathy itself is something all of us should be looking for,” Denver police Chief Paul Pazen said. “We want to see the world through a different set of eyes so we can better understand the issues or problems that people are dealing with. I think it means a lot.”

“What I like about this is it is truly a walk a mile in my shoes perspective,” Pazen said later.

The virtual reality training is part of a $16 million contract extension between the Denver Department of Public Safety and massive police supply company Axon Enterprise for 1,800 new body cameras, five years of online storage for body camera footage and more than 1,000 new Tasers for the city’s police and sheriff’s deputies. Denver City Council approved the contract on Monday, though it faced criticism from some council members who voted against it. The spending is part of the department’s already-approved budget.

The contract approval came one day before the release of an investigation that found that Denver police officers routinely failed to use body cameras they already had while responding to the chaotic George Floyd protests in the city in late May and early June. Hundreds of arrests were not documented as were countless uses of force against protesters and bystanders.

The contract also pays for video storage on Evidence.com, which has also come into question after the protest response investigation. The Office of the Independent Monitor did not have access to the website and instead the police department sent individual videos to the monitor’s staff that they identified as relevant. City council members, the city’s Citizen Oversight Board and the independent monitor himself have stated since the report’s publication on Tuesday that it is time to address that lack of access.

“Allowing the OIM access to Evidence.com would give access to all law enforcement sensitive information contained in that system, such as sexual assaults, homicides, etc,” a police department spokesman said in an email in response to a question by The Denver Post about why the monitor did not have access. “We continue to work with the Office of the Independent Monitor and provide what is needed for their review, both proactively and upon their request.”

Pazen said he’s not aware of any other Colorado law enforcement agency using the virtual reality training. The training will fit into the department’s attempts to better de-escalate situations and provide officers more education about people with mental health diagnoses.

There has not been much research on how effective virtual reality or simulation trainings is at changing officers’ behaviors in the field, said Kaylee Widener, a graduate student of psychology at the University of Denver who is studying how police attitudes about mental illness affect their responses. The trainings are certainly helpful for starting a conversation about how different officers reacted to the simulation, however.

“It’s a great way to start trainings because you have the ability to watch someone go through it and then talk about what they did,” Widener said.

Nearly a quarter of the 5,865 people shot and killed by police in the United States since 2015 had mental health diagnoses, according to The Washington Post’s police shooting database. Denver police, too, have killed people with mental illness, including the high-profile shootings of 15-year-old Paul Childs in 2003 and of Paul Castaway in 2015.

“The training helps teach why it’s important to use a calm voice, here’s why it’s important to turn down the radio, to use calm lights,” Pazen said.

“There’s not one program that solves all the issues and problems,” Pazen said. “(Crisis intervention training) didn’t fix everything. Co-responders aren’t going to be able to fix everything. STAR isn’t going to be able to fix everything by itself. This in itself isn’t a cure for the challenges that we face, but it’s part of the solution.”

Quelle:

https://www.vrroom.buzz/vr-news/trends/denver-police-believe-vr-training-can-teach-empathy

13. Januar 2021 0 comment

Examples

VR Technology Being Used In De-Escalation Training For Police

Officers are given a chance to experience confrontations from the civilians perspective.

Police officers operating out of the Strasburg Police Department in Strasburg, Virginia have begun receiving supplemental VR training centered specifically around crisis de-escalation. Put simply, this specialized immersive training provides officers with the skills and knowledge necessary to recognize and effectively defuse potentially dangerous encounters.

“It puts you in the officer’s shoes and then that person’s shoes. Different perspectives,” said training coordinator Lt. Lonnie Conner according to The Northern Virginia Daily. “This is geared toward de-escalation, so it’s not about shoot/don’t shoot, or anything like that. It’s about being able to recognize and then being able to talk. Crisis intervention.”

*Officers participating in VR training // Credit: Pennsylvania Police Dept.*

The nonlethal training program features three unique crisis scenarios in which to participate. Each of these offer participants several options for how to proceed after encountering a potentially dangerous individual, from asking the individual to lower their weapon to calling for backup. Officers are also given the chance to step into the shoes of said individual, offering a unique perspective on what it’s like to face down the barrel of a gun. In addition to providing useful techniques for conflict resolution and de-escalation, this training program is also designed to assist officers in dealing with those suffering from various developmental disorders, such as autism.

“When you can change that perspective and I can put myself in somebody with a mental crisis or that has autism,” added Capt. Jason Ford. “These will help officers identify those things and that’s what’s big, that’s what’s important.”

Strasford PD’s specialized immersive training was made possible thanks to the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant, worth $80,000. Officers who’ve participated in the training have responded with positive feedback.

“The ones that [have] actually used it, it’s pretty mind-blowing,” said Conner. “Number one, like for me, we don’t know what it’s like to be in that person’s shoes. This lets you do that.”

For more information visit here.

Quelle:

Feature Image Credit: Rich Cooley / Daily

VR Technology Being Used In De-Escalation Training For Police

17. November 2020 0 comment

Examples

‚You Get Fully Submerged‘ – Taser Training In VR

Derbyshire police officers are being taught how to use a Taser device in virtual reality.

Officers would be traditionally taught by having a person wearing a padded suit approach them with a rubber knife, and the officers deciding when to use the mock Taser cartridges.

But this style of training does not reflect the real life situations officers might find themselves in when they need to use the device.

Virtual reality company, AVRT, has been collaborating with the force to create realistic computer generated scenarios officers might be in, such as dealing with a person in an alleyway or a rooftop.

BBC Click’s Omar Mehtab finds out more.

Video

Quelle:

https://www.vrroom.buzz/vr-news/trends/you-get-fully-submerged-taser-training-vr

22. Oktober 2020 0 comment

Examples

Erie Police Academy utilizes VR

Recently, the Erie Police Academy integrated a new method of teaching students using virtual reality (VR) headsets. The headsets are designed to help students simulate scenarios that members of the force must be able to deal with.

These scenarios include dissuading someone from commit-ting suicide, stopping a homeless person from loitering and neutralizing a pair of school shooters holding hostages. The instructor will help monitor the simulation, controlling what the simulated actors do and say in regard to the student’s methods.

Bill Hale, M.S., MBA, Pro-gram Director of the Mercyhurst Municipal Police Academy, is very proud of the recently implemented use of VR in the classroom.

“To offer some sort of simulation that is scenario-based, there is no method better,” Hale said. “This allows us as instructors to assist cadets in developing decision-making skills long before they are tested in the field after they become employed.”

Simulations such as these are important in the training of future police officers, Hale said. It is important for students to be prepared for any type of scenario, because an overactive mind-set in tense situations may lead to a lost life.

For example, one situation shown by the VR headset has the student pull over a rude and abrasive truck driver about to pull an unknown object out of his car. Shooting the driver out of fear would fail the simulation because he was only bringing out his wallet instead of a gun. The simulation is meant to properly train the officers in such situations, which have garnered increased scrutiny in recent years.

This technology also saves the cost of having prop environments or hiring people as ac-tors in the simulation. Headsets can also be scheduled into class times more easily than arranging for live simulations.

Hale even sees a future in which this technology can train students to handle an even broader range of situations.

“In the future, I think different facets of the police job can be wound into the VR training,” Hale said. “Crime scenes and possibly even court testimony can be simulated.”

The system came from the VR company named NSena. Their mission is to bring VR training to both law enforcement and Corrections facilities. They have created this technology due to it being virtually impossible to perfectly replicate the multitude of different areas and scenarios that a police officer may get involved in. The company also provides technology to correctional facilities in order to help prisoners succeed after they are released from prison.

The technology is used to help offenders train for regular day-to-day activities and conflicts that they will need to be prepared for in locations such as the home, a grocery store or a workplace.

Thanks to the NSena, law enforcement agencies, such as the Erie Police Academy, can have more effective training in regard to the many hypothetical scenarios in an officer’s job. According to Hale, the implementation of the technology is still a bit early to see how students feel about the system, but he said they have big plans for continuing its use in the future.

“Everyone that gave it a test drive was excited and called the experience valuable,” Hale said. “So, as we move into a new class in January, we’ll have our curriculum honed a little better and utilize the platform within the class modules.”

Quelle:

Erie Police Academy utilizes VR

16. Dezember 2019 0 comment