Winter Haven police using virtual reality to improve target, de-escalation training

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. - The Winter Haven Police Department is now utilizing a new virtual reality system to improve target training and de-escalation training.

The training happens through the Axon Virtual Reality System, where officers can be faced with different scenarios. This includes an "Angry Dispute" scenario, where the goal is to calm down a man with a baseball bat and to take him into custody while using only a taser. 

Once the scenario is completed by the officers, they get a breakdown of their performance. 

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The new technology immerses Winter Haven police officers into drills or reality-based training scenarios where they have to make decisions on the fly. Officers can also practice interacting with special populations like those with schizophrenia or autism or those involved in domestic violence disputes.

It's better than any PowerPoint or lecture in a classroom as Sgt. Rusich with the police department explained. The learning is far more effective when it's apart of officers' daily routines.

"We usually did this once or twice a year, and now we can do 15 to 20 minutes per shift to make them more effective with their muscle memory," said Rusich.

De-escalation training is also built into the system, so officers will train using less force.

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"It reduces any impact to the public and injury to the officer," said Rusich. "It also gains a lot more trust within the community that officers are trying to de-escalate rather than escalate force."

The hope is the technology will become even more sophisticated and AI-integrated, so officers will be able to communicate with the scenario characters. The Axon Virtual Reality System comes with three headsets and the total cost was $25,000, which was approved in the department's budget this October.

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