Officers Get Trained via VR Stimulation by Tulsa Police Department

• TPD officer uses VR to train officers in real word scenarios. 
• The training aims to enhance communication with preparation.

Officers at Tulsa Police Department (TPD) are going through training at Apex Officer’s Virtual Reality (VR) Simulator. The state-of-the-art training platform facilitates officers with a realistic experience in a safe and controlled environment. With a VR kit, the officer can train in various environments controlled by another officer via laptop. 

The Apex Officer’s VR Simulator

The simulator comes with more than 25 different environments, where multiple scenarios like a hostage situation, domestic abuse, active shooting, robbery, car stops etc., can be used to train officers. They are designed to train officers in utilizing de-escalation techniques and enhance their crisis response. 

With its immersive technology, officers can experience any scenario in a very realistic and interactive way. This improves their decision-making abilities and enhances response timings. A supporting officer can alter the situation and responses from 3D virtual characters, adding to reality and experience. 

The supporting officer will speak to the trainee via a microphone, unfolding the scenario via the officer’s goggles. Other supporting gadgets, like guns, can be used for target practice. This whole exercise increases communication skills within the team, which can come in handy in real life. 

Officer Brandt says the simulator allows us to quickly recreate scenarios, where officers can point out mistakes, and weak spots missed the first time. In real life, it would either be impossible or take much time to set up the recreation of a scenario, which can still go wrong the second time. 

Showing the beauty of the simulator, Officer McGlynn says that the scenario itself turns different every time; for example, a combative suspect might be docile and cooperative in the next iteration. Or a simple fender bender situation can turn violent quickly or might be solved by negotiation.

Officer Brandt, who underwent training, argued that VR training could never replace the current training procedure. Still, it can surely provide more experience and practice to the officers in much less time and in an affordable way. 

Inveris Training Solution

Another company heavily investing in providing law enforcement officers with real-life virtual training is Georgia-based Inveris Training Solutions. The multiple scenarios and modules available in their portfolio are. 

Survivor training, where a critical hostage situation can be staged, prepares officers in the real world to de-escalate force. See Rehearse and Collectively Experience (SCORE)involves the whole team put in a scenario, preparing for future missions or objectives. 

100C Marksmanship facilitates a state-of-the-art shooting range, enhancing weapon handling and target practice skills without compromising real weapons, and is cheaper too. 180LE and 300LE are scenarios where multiple screens create a 180-degree or 300-degree field of view, enhancing training and response timings. 

Benefits of AI-ML-VRTraining

Technological enhancement has allowed the creation of interactive and immersive virtual scenarios, which can be used to enjoy realistic games and train personnel. However, this training cannot replace real-world training but can provide many experiences. 

It is like a flight simulator; anyone with a system can fly a plane and experience it with added gadgets. While flying, even a practice plane is very costly and dangerous. Still, rumors are that when the pilot of a passenger plane got a heart attack onboard, it was landed by a person habitual of playing a flight simulator. 

Nancy J. Allen is a crypto enthusiast and believes that cryptocurrencies inspire people to be their own banks and step aside from traditional monetary exchange systems. She is also intrigued by blockchain technology and its functioning.

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