“We quickly discovered that virtual reality might be the solution to scaling this curriculum, so we partnered with a Toronto firm named Lumeto,” said professor Álvarez, noting the team worked with her fellow TMU professors Richard Lachman from The Creative School and Naimul Khan from the Faculty of Engineering and Architectural Science on the VR project. As a performance studies researcher, professor Álvarez thought nothing could compare to the empathy a live actor can elicit, but she has been surprised by the impact of the 360-degree immersive qualities offered by VR. She observes how it allows participants the opportunity to think of their physical positioning during the simulation in a way that “notional set pieces” do not. “VR lends itself so effectively to those conversations about how to use the environment to set the table for safe and effective de-escalation,” she said.

AxonVR training

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS A lock ( LockA locked padlock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Official websites use .gov A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Police trainingsimulator cost

Officers participate in virtual reality-based simulation training that aims to improve police response to mental health crises. Photo courtesy of Natalie Álvarez.

[note 3] Lum, C., et al, Research on body-worn cameras: What we know, what we need to know, Criminology & Public Policy, pp. 93 – 118,  March 24, 2019

AxonVR trainingcost

Body-worn cameras are widely used by state and local law enforcement agencies in the United States. They are worn principally by officers in the performance of duties that require open and direct contact with the public. Despite their widespread and growing adoption, the current evidence regarding the effectiveness of body-worn cameras is mixed. Some studies suggest that body-worn cameras may offer benefits while others show either no impact or possible negative effects. The mixed results of these studies strongly imply that additional research is needed. In particular, more studies employing randomized control trials [1] are needed.

While initially developed to be delivered by live actors, the training scenarios have evolved to include VR simulation options. This shift allows the researchers to more easily deliver standardized training across a large region like Ontario. Professor Álvarez is co-leading the team migrating the curriculum to VR, a project led by professor Lavoie. Eleven police services have now been trained to use the VR curriculum created from this research with more organizations expected to come onboard.

Police VRgame free

“What was most satisfying was having all those different stakeholders at the table to develop an evaluation framework for de-escalation,” said professor Álvarez, who is The Creative School’s Associate Dean, Scholarly, Research and Creative Activities. In addition to the evaluation framework, the team created eight scenarios to increase police officers’ competencies when responding to crises, such as self-harm or suicidal behaviour, psychosis or extreme distress. Prior to launching this scenario-training project, professor Álvarez researched immersive simulation training, including the military’s use of the technique, for her award-winning book Immersions in Cultural Difference, and she was interested in how the technique translated into policing contexts. She adds that it is often taken for granted or assumed that such training works. One of the points that sets this collaborative research apart is the team’s development of an evidence-based curriculum.

According to the 2018 BJS report, the main reasons (about 80% each) that local police and sheriffs’ offices had acquired body-worn cameras were to improve officer safety, increase evidence quality, reduce civilian complaints, and reduce agency liability.

[note 2] Hyland, S., Body-Worn Cameras in Law Enforcement Agencies, 2016, Bureau of Justice Statistics, November 2018. Note that this survey excluded federal agencies, sheriffs’ offices with only jail or court duties, and special-purpose agencies such as transit police and campus police.

Research does not necessarily support the effectiveness of body-worn cameras in achieving those desired outcomes. A comprehensive review of 70 studies of body-worn cameras use found that the larger body of research on body-worn cameras showed no consistent or no statistically significant effects.[3] This meta-analysis was rated by CrimeSolutions and resulted in a No Effects rating for the impact of body-worn cameras on use of force, assaults on officers, officer-initiated calls for service, arrests, traffic stops and tickets, and field interviews (i.e., stop and frisk). See Practice Profile: Body-Worn Cameras’ Effects on Police Officer Behavior. This profile is based on a meta-analysis published in 2020.

Agencies should consider how body worn cameras will meet their mission needs and requirements prior to procurement and use of the technology. To provide general guidance to law enforcement practitioners, NIJ, NIST and the FBI developed a table listing operating characteristics and associated functionality descriptions based on existing technical resources about criminal justice use of video.[5],[6] The operating characteristics and associated functionality descriptions in the table can help agencies determine what they need as they consider the commercial products available.

Apex OfficerVRcost

Professor Álvarez and her colleagues first started discussing the idea in light of Ontario Ombudsman Paul Dubé’s 2016 report, A Matter of Life and Death, written in the wake of teenager Sammy Yatim’s death in 2013. A recommendation in that report called for standardized and mandatory de-escalation training for police across the province, noting that at the time, scenario training for law enforcement tended to focus on use-of-force training rather than de-escalation.

In November 2018, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) published a report on the use of body-worn cameras by law enforcement agencies in the United States in 2016.[2] This report showed that:

[note 1] RCTs provide the highest degree of confidence that observed effects are the result of the program and not of other factors.

[note 6] Scientific Working Group on Imaging Technology, Recommendations and Guidelines for Using Closed-Circuit Television Security Systems in Commercial Institutions, Version 3.0, June 8, 2012.

Police vr trainingfree

Facebook, opens new window Instagram, opens new window X, opens new window YouTube, opens new window LinkedIn, opens new window Tiktok, opens new window

These mixed findings are further reflected in findings from evaluations of ten body-worn camera programs that have met the stringent criteria for inclusion in NIJ’s CrimeSolutions, see Table 1.[4] Across these evaluations, researchers looked at a range of outcomes, including use of force, citizen complaints, arrests, and assaults on officers. Four of the body-worn camera programs evaluated were found to have no, limited, or even negative effects.

Read more about this research in a co-authored article “Developing Community Co-designed Scenario-based Training for Police Mental Health Crisis Response: A Relational Policing Approach to De-escalation (external link, opens in new window) ”, published in the Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology.

VR police trainingQuest 2

School of Performance professor Natalie Álvarez is the principal investigator of an extensive collaborative effort to research, develop and validate simulation training to improve police response to mental health crises. Along with her co-investigators, Wilfred Laurier University criminology and psychology professor Jennifer Lavoie and University of Victoria theatre professor Yasmine Kandil, they assembled a team of community stakeholders who ranged from people who live with mental health challenges, to de-escalation experts, to Indigenous cultural safety specialists, to nurses, clinicians, artists, actors and more. After receiving funding in 2017, they developed live-action immersive scenarios, which the team has recently translated into a VR simulation version of the training that is being used around Ontario.

Police vr trainingonline

[note 5] Home Office Centre for Applied Science and Technology, Body-Worn Video Technical Guidance (pdf, 10 pages), May 2014

Based on these reviews and the existing research on the impact of body-worn cameras use, it is clear that further research is essential to determine the value of body-worn cameras use and potentially the more effective ways body-worn cameras could be deployed. Given the growing use of body-worn cameras, it would be best to build in rigorous evaluations as law enforcement agencies expand their use of this technology.

[note 4] CrimeSolutions is the NIJ-funded federal clearinghouse of evaluation research, showing what works, what does not work, and what is promising across broad expanses of criminal and juvenile justice programs and practice. Learn more about CrimeSolutions.

Police officers are improving their ability to respond to and de-escalate mental health crisis situations using immersive, scenario-based simulation training developed by a Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) researcher and her collaborators, an ongoing project that has recently expanded to include the option to deliver training via virtual reality (VR).

This research has been supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

VGA, HD 720P, and 1080 HD are predominant standard resolutions. The higher the resolution, the more storage is needed. Estimates below were created assuming H.264 compression with medium to high motion at 30 frames per second (fps) derived using a heuristic formula widely used in industry. Actual storage utilized is dependent on scene complexity and the motion of the video captured. Consider what sort of analysis may be conducted on the video before selecting a resolution. For example, if forensic video analysis is anticipated, a resolution less than VGA is not recommended.

Developed by the NIJ-funded NLECTC Sensor, Surveillance and Biometric Technologies Center of Excellence, A Primer on Body-Worn Cameras for Law Enforcement provides an introduction to body-worn camera systems. The  report discusses the functions and features of body-worn camera systems and highlights issues and factors that law enforcement organizations should consider before and during implementation.