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The Morris County Public Safety Training Academy in Morristown, New Jersey now provides a virtual reality-based training program for the Morris County Poice. The program is intended to help officers hone their use of force decision-making skills.
From the Wired article by Issie Lapowsky:
this system, designed by a company called VirTra, is actually critical in helping police officers hone their skills as decision makers before they’re let out in the real world. Morris County installed the technology last November, smack dab in the middle of one of the most contentious periods in recent history between police and the public. And while Digiralomo, director of the county’s Department of Law and Public Safety, says that wasn’t why the academy bought the roughly $300,000 system, it’s hard not to see the connection.
...
Systems like VirTra’s are designed with just that in mind. “We’re finding there’s a need for cities and national agencies to train at above minimum standards,” says Bob Ferris, CEO and founder of VirTra. “With this new technology, they can better prepare officers for use of force and the life and death situations that often make the headlines.”
While the scenario described in the article isn't quite as cut and dried as this one, one can hope that this type of training can help police make better use of force decisions in the field.
The Virtra Systems[auto-play video enabled] product is one of several used by police departments around the United States.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bradley13 on Tuesday March 31 2015, @02:30PM
Isn't there a false assumption at work here? Using this kind of system assumes that the police are ready to shoot, and only need to decide whether or not to actually do so. The thing is, for most police that's wrong. Most police, the vast majority of the time, using their weapon shouldn't even be on the radar. The unjustified shootings that make the interwebs are usually situations where the police involved shouldn't have even grabbed their weapon.
Suspect someone of having some weed? Why call in a SWAT team, rather than knocking on the door and serving a warrant? Being charged by the family dog? Meter readers and the post office knows how to deal with dogs without shooting them, why can't the police? Got a report of a kid waving a real-looking gun around? You don't drive up and kill him, before even asking the first question.
Police who do these things don't need another training toy that will let them take their weapons in their hands. They need a complete change of mentality.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Wednesday April 01 2015, @01:17AM
That's what I thought when I read the headline too.
>Virtual Reality Sim Teaches Cops When to Shoot
Hopefully that "when" is never.
But I think it could be done well. Make a visual novel or other conversation style game. You get points for resolving conflicts peacefully. You get more points for helping people than writing them up or arresting them (e.g., helping lost kids). There's a small chance for incidents where lethal force must be used to protect the officer or other people, but lethal force always incurs penalty. If an incident can be resolved peacefully but you use lethal force, you incur a huge penalty.
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