Chapter 6 112 In Chapter 5, we examined the feedback features of the after-action review of VR training. VR training systems provide the opportunity to replay the recorded virtual training scenarios from different perspectives (e.g., bird’s eye view, police officer view, suspect view) and enhance it with a variety of features such as indicating the line of fire of the weapon. This retrospective performance review provides police instructors and trainees with objective information about the events that have taken place in the training scenarios. We investigated whether perspectives (bird’s eye & police officer, bird’s eye & suspect, bird’s eye) and line of fire displayed during the after-action review influenced the learning efficacy of police officers after training in VR. Police officers experienced a significantly greater learning efficacy when reviewing their training performance using a bird’s eye view in combination with the suspect perspective compared to using bird’s eye view alone. Using the line of fire of the weapon during the after-action review did not influence the learning efficacy of police officers. Hence, in Chapter 5, we provide evidence that some features of the after-action review in VR enhance learning efficacy. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS Taken together, the studies in this thesis answer the two main questions of this thesis: (a) how VR training can improve and supplement current police training practices, and (b) how VR training can be applied to enhance the training and learning experience of police officers. In accordance with the epistemology of the author, this thesis highlights the relevance of conducting applied research to inform practice. The experiments presented in each chapter were conducted in collaboration with law enforcement agencies and executed within existing training structures of the agencies. The results of these experiments therefore reflect the reality of police practice, representing the natural setting of police training as closely as possible. Hence, the conclusions and implications of the applied and collaborative approach to research provide information that can be readily utilized and translated in the context of existing police training. For instance, as police training is confined by the availability of resources (Kleygrewe et al., 2022), VR training needs to be efficiently conducted within the finite training time that is available to police instructors and trainees. Approaching research with an interdisciplinary and context-dependent perspective takes these complexities into account and allows for the results of the experiments to reflect the reality of the state of police practice. Hence, the conclusions and implications of this applied and collaborative approach to research provide information that can be readily utilized and translated in the context of existing police training. In the following, I outline how the results of this thesis provide evidence-based recommendations on how to implement and apply VR training to police practice.
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