Law enforcement trainees at Owens Community College will soon enter virtual reality.
Mark King, manager of the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy, or OPOTA, said the training program at Owens is very excited to implement the new technology into his training program, having anticipated it for the last couple of years.
“What we're really looking to do and train officers to do is make good choices and good decisions under a lot of stress,” Mr. King said. “Critical decision-making is key in policing. We're hoping that these will either prevent, or at least mitigate, some of the issues we have increasing with interactions.”
Mr. King said the VR sets will not replace current training modules, such as de-escalation training and running through live scenarios, but they will serve to supplement the existing training. He also celebrated the VR technology for both its cost efficiency and minimal space requirement.
The OPOTA program will be using the headsets for both cadets and current officers looking to further their training. Mr. King said the benefits of the technology — better decision-making and problem-solving under stressful circumstances — will improve law enforcement officers’ emotional responses to situations regardless of how far along they are in their career.
The use of the new technology follows an announcement in May from Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost that his office would be launching a series of immersive VR trainings for law enforcement across the state.
“These VR goggles put you in a situation where you’ve got to make decisions, put your training to work, and respond,” Mr. Yost said. “It is the next best thing to actually being on the street, but the good news is, when we’re using virtual reality to have those experiences, if the rookie cop makes a mistake, it doesn’t have consequences in the real world. They can just learn from it.”
There now are six scenarios trainees can experience in VR, each one focused on broader themes officers may encounter on the job: mental health crises, domestic violence, school violence, issues with teenagers, suicide prevention, and angry families. Each scenario lasts eight to 12 minutes and allows trainees to practice responding to situations using crisis-management skills.
“I can’t think of a time where my attention wasn’t focused on what was going on, hearing noises around me, so I was always looking around and I was very drawn into it,” Sgt. Jon Earl of Whitehall, Ohio, Police Department said of his experience in a VR scenario. “Watching the video or sitting there, your mind could wander off and go about anywhere, but I found myself very drawn into it [when using VR].”
About 160 VR headsets loaded with the six scenarios are spread across the state at the six regional OPOTA providers. Owens is the provider for the northwest region.
“Every jurisdiction is a little bit different and has their own way of approaching things, but fundamentally, we want the police officers to have this foundation that is shared,” Mr. Yost said. “This is one of those ways to ensure that commonality happens across jurisdictions and between agencies.”
The attorney general’s office is also working on creating more videos for the headsets to release next summer on top of the six already created by Ohio State and Ohio universities with the Athens Police Department and Athens County Sheriff’s Office.
Back at Owens, Mr. King is anticipating the release of truly interactive VR scenarios because, while the current videos are very immersive and realistic, they do not give trainees the opportunity to truly insert themselves into the situation. He anticipates interactive VR to be released within the next two years.
In general, Mr. King predicts law enforcement training will advance “tremendously” within the next three to five years, as technologies like artificial intelligence continue to rapidly improve.
First Published August 13, 2024, 4:09 p.m.
