By Police1 Staff
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Police Department is getting into the virtual reality game.
From de-escalation tactics to drills involving standoff situations and mental health crises, the department is teaming up with V-Armed, a company that creates custom 3D virtual reality simulations for large-scale training, to add a new training tool, NBC News reports.
The simulator involves a motion capture studio being built in the police academy’s gymnasium, with dozens of cameras and wearable sensors.
“The systems that we’re installing will monitor the heartbeat, the eye movements, the stress levels of the individual,” LAPD Chief Michel Moore told NBC News. “We see VR as a means of improving outcomes for instances that resulted in a tragic loss.”
“I can take a scenario that I might train one day and put that on Hollywood Boulevard, and then the next day I can run a similar scenario and put it in Skid Row,” Sgt. Andrew Cullen of the LAPD Training Bureau told NBC News.
LAPD’s implementation of the tech for training follows similar moves from departments in areas like Sacramento, Calif., Moore, Okla., and Greenfield, Ind.
Want to learn more about how virtual reality is transforming police training? Sign up for our upcoming webinar, “Beyond shoot-don’t shoot: The role of VR in police training and community policing,” scheduled for May 19 at 1 p.m. EST / 12 p.m. CST.