How Colorado Springs Police Cut Costs With VR Training

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(TNS) — A virtual reality training simulator is helping Colorado Springs police test and improve their skills before taking them to the streets.

Police in recent months received a federal grant through the Department of Justice to buy two Apex Virtual Reality training systems, a $69,000 piece of technology the department says has worked to promote training efficiency and cut overall training costs.

The Police Department is the third in the state to receive the new technology, along with Aurora and Thornton.

The Apex VR system “has allowed us to put all of our officers through some pretty realistic reality training scenarios and test them on their knowledge and ability out on the streets and really help them to improve their skills,” Sgt. Marcus Van Ooyen said at a recent demonstration.

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“We try and make it as realistic as possible and gear the scenarios towards actual calls of service that have occurred in the community. We also look at our department mission and vision and all of our values and try to gear the scenarios around them as well so the training doesn’t stop when the scenarios stop.”

Typical scenarios require at least two to three role players and at least two evaluators, and would allow for one to two officers to go through the simulated training at a time. As a result, the system requires significantly less staff and can train officers at much more efficiently than conventional methods, he said.

“Role player staffing would either be paid actors who would receive 8 to 10 hours of pay, or they would be police officers from the department,” he said, adding that if the role players were on-duty officers, it could contribute to a negative impact on staffing operations.

The Apex System comes with hundreds of preloaded characters and scenarios the department can tailor to reflect situations prevalent around Colorado Springs, from drug busts and hostage situations to domestic disputes.

The scenarios work to practice specific policing skills in real time, such as demonstrating emotional maturity, legal authority, use of force and deescalation skills.

The system works like this: One officer is in the simulation, one is leading the scenario and voicing the characters, and a third works to spot the officer participating in the training.

Van Ooyen said the training simulation can feel so real at times that officers have fallen to avoid walls or tried to run up stairs that don’t actually exist.

“It’s pretty funny, when you first put the goggles on, you know you’re in a virtual world. The environment looks very realistic and the characters are fairly realistic, but not totally. It’s amazing how when you get into the goggles and start running yourself through the scenario, how you become totally immersed and it feels like you’re in a real call for service,” Van Ooyen said.

Participating in the simulation: a first-person account

The Police Department allowed me to participate in the training, role-playing a call for service over a domestic disturbance.

As I put on the heavy headset, and vest and holstered the prop firearm to my hip, the nerves began to hit. The scenario began with a dark screen and the voice of Officer Nate Hefty, who was running the simulation with a microphone and laptop.

I learned I had been called to a residence by a reporting neighbor who told dispatch they had heard a couple arguing, a woman asking for help and a mention of a knife. I appeared at the front of the residence and mimed knocking at the door.

“CSPD. Open up,” I said, pulling lines from the intuitive reasoning I had developed from my years of watching cop TV.

An avatar of a man appeared, whose name was Brandon, and a back-and-forth discussion erupted of me asking to talk to the couple to ensure their safety and Brandon refusing, insisting everything was fine.

Then, the Brandon avatar pulled out a knife. As I reached for the prop firearm at my hip, he raised the knife in my direction. Although a mere simulation, my heart rate increased.

As I attempted to reason with the Brandon avatar, my once-confident and even tone devolved to a stuttered attempt to repeatedly ask Brandon to put down the weapon. I was unsure whether it was my negotiating abilities or the training officer’s sense of developing panic, but the Brandon avatar eventually let me inside and the simulation was over.

As I removed my headset and my eyes adjusted, Van Ooyen began his debrief of my simulation as every officer receives following their session with the Apex VR system.

“I thought you did good. You stayed calm and used conversational language. You did fall into a small loop in asking him to drop the weapon, but that’s common with our officers in training,” he told me.

While the experience was simulated, my anxiety was real .

Looking ahead

According to the department, since starting the VR training in June, more than 200 officers have participated. The hope is to have the entire force participate in the new training by the end of the year.

“We’ve received glowing reviews of the training so far,” Van Ooyen said.

“One of our big goals was to try and make the training as applicable and realistic as possible. We’re giving our officers tools that they can bring back to the streets and improve their abilities and this tool made that possible.