Maarten– Antwerp Police (Belgium)

Since 2015, police work forms the ideal context for me to combine personal motivations with playing an important role in our complex society. As Police Inspector and now as Police Commissioner, I find it important to keep a critical view on innovation in the police. Fundamentally any innovation that police would wish to introduce should improve the functioning of police and increase the positive impacts we seek in regards to public safety.

The most important argument to use VR in police training is that you can train whatever, whenever in a safe environment. You can repeat scenarios over and  over again and an AAR debriefing allows to confront trainees in a positive and negative way, in a pedagogic way, correcting the action of trainees. In VR you can train for instance actions in the presence of a crying baby which in real life forms practical and ethical objections.

Personally I see two types of VR: a low budget range of VR training solutions (40-50.000€) with limited technical an visual possibilities, without AAR and where very often you need to permanently hold a weapon which makes de-escalation more difficult. In more expensive high end VR solutions, the level of immersion is higher, after action review (AAR) is possible, you can chose to use different weapons or no weapon at all. A minimum social presence can be reached with these high end systems allowing communication with avatars and role players, thus making de-escalation possible.

I am not convinced that investing in VR always saves money, it can though. Conventional training will still be needed (hand cuffing or shooting). VR training can bring additional value if it can be done in a safe way (limiting motion sickness) and if it allows to obtain the goals your LEA has put forward.

(Manfred – Berlin Police, Germany)

Soon he will have 40 years of divers police experience on his meter and still he feels that working with people and empowering security for all citizens  in our society is the most important and rewarding drive. “I wanted to be on the right side of history when I joined the police”, he said.

Aged 17, Manfred joined the police force and took up a post in the riot police. He followed “Abendschule” to get his diploma and steamed up to the police academy to study. He climbed up in the hierarchy and had several management positions in the police and build up more experience in the riot police before becoming a police trainer and later also a trainer to train police trainers. Hundreds of police officers were skilfully formed and trained by Manfred and his team of 70 trainers.

“It was thanks to an EU Erasmus program” that he met some researchers from the VUA, the Amsterdam uni who were researching police training topics. Their focus was to improve the outcome of police training. Two years down the line Manfred got a call from the Netherlands asking him to join Shotpros. The project is in the last straight line to the finnish.

“The VR police project SHOTPROS was a revelation to me. “

Manfred always focused on improving police training but with this VR system of Re-Lion he could train more, better and without danger. The biggest advantage for him is that you can use it 24/7, with every variation in the scenario imaginable, tailor-made training  focused on decision making and acting, learning more about human behaviour and stress…

The VR system, although initially a big investment, helps to save money for a very often tight police budget. The cost to rent big buildings in which they can train specific scenarios can be eliminated and with VR you can train hundreds or more scenarios while trainees who have trained in one building 2-3 times no longer see the challenge to continue since they know all corners of that physical building. Not so in the VR. VR scenario can be each time new, a challenge to push officers to further improve their skills.

“VR training is better, you can train more, the intensity of the immersion, the realism of the experience drive you to go that mile further.”

The fact that “making new scenarios is as easy as assembling an Ikea product”, motivates to further diversify police training. The eagerness and curiosity of our management to know all possibilities of VR is doing the rest to drive us forward into the future of policing.

(Alex Schäfer – Police NRW, Germany)

 My first role after joining the police was patrolling the streets and 7,5 years later I added some more experience working in the riot police. Following an extended training, I became a police trainer and now I train police trainers. Our unit forms up to 150 Police trainers a year for the most densely populated part of Germany.

This is how I realized my dream, being active, always looking to learn, searching  for the excitement of a new challenge, working in a dynamic international team, fighting for a safer society to live in.

I always look for best practices elsewhere, not because I think the grass is greener on the other side but because I believe that we can always learn from each other. Every police officer is confronted with the same problems no matter where in the world. But the solutions differ. My colleagues in the Netherlands have better integrated inclusive training systems. They have years of experience with body cams and mobile communication technology in their vehicles. We try to learn from them and with introducing VR we hope to make a jump into future policing.

“VR is not a magic want, it is a good complement to some parts of police training.”

Training an arrest, training with the baton, or shooting training is best done in the physical dimension but VR training is good for tactical policing, communication and perception. VR can also save money for the police department since you can be quicker to adapt to a changed modus operandi of criminals or terrorists. It allows to build tailor-made training for specific building, specific scenarios,… VR also allows to train in a setting that is otherwise difficult to train in real life because its complexity, like how to evacuate a metro station at rush hour or how to control a crowd.

The level of immersion in VR training is a real game changer. You can train complex police interventions with a high level of realism and a high stress level. You can repeat the same training scenario over and over again until the officer succeeds to stay in control.

That is why I truly believe that in 10 years’ time many police officers will do what pilots have been doing for decades: to fly real planes AND to train in a simulator. It has made the aviation sector safe, I’m sure everyone is convinced that making our societies equally safe , disserves the same attention and investment by complementing police training with VR training.