Article Sacramento police officers to use virtual reality in training – KCRA Sacramento

With police responses to calls under intense scrutiny following high-profile cases across the country calling their judgment into question, the Sacramento Police Department is using virtual reality as part of its training for officers.Incorporating video simulators with scenarios inspired by real-life experiences in the field, officers will be trained on variety of situations and circumstances."Training cost a lot of money. It takes a lot of time to set up. It takes space and you need different environments to do that," said Lt. Zachary Bales who heads the department's virtual training. "Here in the virtual world, you can literally offer a scenario, build a scenario and put that officer in that scenario." Just like real life, the officers have to make split-second decisions that could affect not only the lives of people in the community but their own as well. Sacramento Police Chief Daniel Hahn said the training will help his officers and keep people safe."This is just one small piece of a very large effort that makes some of those experiences easier to provide to our officers in a setting that's easier to access, safe, and doesn't require a ton of role players," Hahn said. The system is capable of 3D scanning any environment, so here in Sacramento, we could have the Golden 1 Center 3D-scanned and we can have officers virtually respond." Journalists were invited to experience the 3D simulator, including Genoa Barrow with the Sacramento Observer."Anything, that I think can prevent some of these incidents that have been happening, the better off for new officers and for veteran officers I think, should probably go through this training," Barrow said.The technology also allows instructors to replay the virtual scenarios so other officers can see what worked and what didn't, and then learn from those experiences.

With police responses to calls under intense scrutiny following high-profile cases across the country calling their judgment into question, the Sacramento Police Department is using virtual reality as part of its training for officers.

Incorporating video simulators with scenarios inspired by real-life experiences in the field, officers will be trained on variety of situations and circumstances.

"Training cost a lot of money. It takes a lot of time to set up. It takes space and you need different environments to do that," said Lt. Zachary Bales who heads the department's virtual training. "Here in the virtual world, you can literally offer a scenario, build a scenario and put that officer in that scenario."

Just like real life, the officers have to make split-second decisions that could affect not only the lives of people in the community but their own as well.

Sacramento Police Chief Daniel Hahn said the training will help his officers and keep people safe.

"This is just one small piece of a very large effort that makes some of those experiences easier to provide to our officers in a setting that's easier to access, safe, and doesn't require a ton of role players," Hahn said. The system is capable of 3D scanning any environment, so here in Sacramento, we could have the Golden 1 Center 3D-scanned and we can have officers virtually respond."

Journalists were invited to experience the 3D simulator, including Genoa Barrow with the Sacramento Observer.

"Anything, that I think can prevent some of these incidents that have been happening, the better off for new officers and for veteran officers I think, should probably go through this training," Barrow said.

The technology also allows instructors to replay the virtual scenarios so other officers can see what worked and what didn't, and then learn from those experiences.

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Article Sacramento police officers to use virtual reality in training - KCRA Sacramento