The University of Oregon Police Department purchased a $62,000 virtual reality system for de-escalation training intended to improve the quality of training for officers and its service to the community.
While VR is not new when it comes to police training, older systems tend to focus only on the use of force and “shoot, don’t shoot” situations. UOPD Chief of Police Matthew Carmichael said the new system is a big improvement as it focuses more on de-escalation and is built for “today’s policing.”
“We want to set up positive, interactive feedback,” Carmichael said. “If I go into a system, and all I’m doing is training officers on use of force with that system, what do you think they’re going to focus on?”
Carmichael said the Apex Officer Pro Training Simulator, which UOPD purchased in early March, allows for multiple officers to train together. He intends to pair armed officers and unarmed community service officers, or CSOs, together to better mimic what happens in the field.
“This system will give me the opportunity to immerse officers CSOs into a training environment without having to close a building and post training signs and have, you know, actors and actresses in there and simulate some kind of event,” Carmichael said.
The entire system includes VR goggles, headphones and a vest that provides interactive, haptic feedback based on the simulation so officers can feel any attack brought on by the scenario. Carmichael said the feedback is a valuable feature for creating realistic and educational scenarios.
“Say we do have a situation where there is some type of violence, you will know if you were successful in resolving at the time because you’ll get feedback through the vest system,” he said.
According to the Apex Officer website, the simulator has a “dynamic scenario generator” that uses artificial intelligence to create multi-incident scenarios that adapt to how the officer reacts. In addition to use of force, the system can simulate a wide variety of scenarios including mental health crises, traffic stops and even calls when nothing happens at all.
Normally the simulator costs about $90,000, but Carmichael said the department bought it for $62,000 and called it an “outstanding investment” for UOPD that he hopes will save money down the road. He said that this system did not require additional funding as the department was able to repurpose existing funds.
“We’ll know in about 12 months after we get rocking and rolling with the system working,” Carmichael said. “Not only will we see what that cost saves us, and maybe training that it replaces, but the new thing is going to be — look at all this training we’re going to get to do on shift that we didn’t have the opportunity to do before because we didn’t have the system.”
To make sure training is as effective as possible, Carmichael said UOPD Interim Director of Outreach and Engagement John Johnson will look at the system through an equity lens to provide feedback.
UOPD brought in Johnson, who spent 13 years in law enforcement at UC Davis and has master’s degrees in organizational behavior and family therapy, to consult and improve the department’s culture, diversity, equity and inclusion.
He uses his previous experiences in policing to offer a new perspective for UOPD’s training, while also studying the needs and perspectives of community members who come from different backgrounds to improve service.
“I’m looking to learn what can be done to address the needs of this community,” Johnson said. “Taking into account my previous experiences, I had to learn the needs of what a community is all around the university, and each one is going to be different.”
Since UO brings in students from all over the world with different backgrounds and cultures, Johnson said it’s important to prepare for their needs and adjust training to accommodate those factors.
“How do we visualize all the different cities of all the different people that will come in and now be part of your community for one, two, three or four years and beyond?” Johnson said. “We need to prepare for the unknown.”
Johnson said he will bring this approach to the new simulator to collaborate and give input on how officers should be training and what new situations they may encounter. He wants officers to train outside their comfort zone, comparing it to practicing for an athletic event.
“The conditioning dynamic should be much more intense than the actual competition,” Johnson said. “That means that when it comes time to see the situation, you’re not overwhelmed by what could possibly occur because you’ve been training at a much higher level of intensity, much greater focus.”
Carmichael has high hopes for the new simulator and believes that UOPD’s approach to the training, paired with Johnson’s consulting, will make the training system more effective than it otherwise would be.
“Our focus on communication is going to be something that is going to help build a training platform that is educational, but it’s positive,” Carmichael said. “If we use this system just to focus on the potential continued negative contacts, that would be a bad choice on our part.”
