Officers faced with variety of scenarios
Utah law enforcement officers will soon face some challenging situations in virtual reality.
360-degree simulators are very effective at teaching officers when and how to use deadly force, but in a group of just produced scenarios, they taught Constitutional law enforcement like respecting First Amendment rights when confronting protestors.
Captain Chip Blair of the Utah Highway Patrol was placed into one of the new virtual scenarios.
It was filmed at the Utah State Capitol where he first assisted in arresting a group of demonstrators who chained themselves to a staircase and then dealt with an unstable individual who doused himself with gasoline and threatened to ignite himself.
Captain Blair was able to de-escalate both situations without drawing a weapon which is the goal of the training.
“We arrest 12 and a half million people each year here in the United States of America and in less than 2 percent do we use any force and in less than 1/3 in 1000th of 1 percent do we actually shoot people so yeah we do have tactical situations here where officers demonstrate their decision making and shooting skills but it’s so much more robust. We teach a de-escalation class here in the platform using virtual reality to teach officers to de-escalate crisis situations,” said Special Agent Ken Wallentine with the Utah Attorney General’s Office.
Officers have this hi-tech VirTra Training System thanks in part to drug dealers. The program was paid for by drug forfeitures.
Source: Good4Utah