Watch: Virtual Reality Training For Police To Help Reduce Shootings

Police shootings have been a hot-button issue in the U.S. for quite some time, especially with the advent of the internet, smartphone cameras, and live streaming features by social media sites. Now, police are also adopting emerging VR technology to help train officers in dealing with tense situations without automatically resorting to their firearms.

VR is already in use in several legal and crime cases, helping juries, lawyers, and prosecutors look at the evidence, crime scenes, and environments that can give them a better idea of exactly what happened. Now, police are doing the same thing in order to re-train their officers and avoid unnecessary use of deadly force.​

The company providing the VR simulation that’s meant to reduce police shootings is BEST and according to Jed Merrill from the company, more immersive training might be the key to addressing this grave social issue, Engadget reports. With casualties among civilians going as high as 2.6 victims shot by police on a daily basis, it’s an issue that desperately needs to be solved.

The whole concept of the simulation is to remind officers that they are first and foremost “peace officers,” Merrill says. By training the men and women in blue to have a broader perspective when it comes to this concept, they will find it easier to stop from jumping to conclusions and just going with what is increasingly looking like ingrained, institutional habit.

The simulation itself is focused on the idea of de-escalation, where instead of using methods that antagonize suspects and make them more aggressive, police can use more diplomatic tactics. The key points that the training will emphasize are behavior, ethics, strategy, and tactics or B.E.S.T.

Aside from the fact that the training may pay off by actually reducing casualties and improving police-civilian relations, the results of the simulation could also include reduced cost for the government. With compensation, among other payments that will be given to families of the victims, each case can cost up $2 million. With this VR training method, everyone wins.