Chapter 3 50 resembles the operational gear (e.g., FX systems that replicate the operational weapon but use non-lethal munition), and sufficient training time to set-up the scenario and complete it with multiple trainees. Thus, limitations in delivery and resource availability make the efficacious application and implementation of RL SBT in police training challenging (Kleygrewe et al., 2022). The use of virtual reality training – scenario-based training using a virtual simulator (VR SBT) — offers new ways to complement RL SBT (Haskins et al., 2020; Murtinger et al., 2021). Immersive VR training systems provide a 3D environment in which trainees can freely move about and interact with simulated surroundings (Scarfe & Glennerster, 2019). VR SBT provides the advantage that it can be performed largely independent of a training location as it relies only on sufficient space to set up a VR system. Additionally, police instructors can control the content of the scenarios and create a wide variety of simulated environments without needing additional resources such as props or different training locations. Most VR systems offer an after-action review in which instructors and trainees can play back the scenario from various perspectives while also providing a variety of performance data (e.g., shots fired, targets hit, bystanders flagged). Having these after-action review options from the VR system may enhance the way instructors provide and trainees receive feedback, as the objective and visual information provided during the review is less abstract compared to verbal feedback after RL SBT. Using VR SBT may thus provide the opportunity to negate some of the challenges that RL SBT poses (Giessing, 2021). In recent years, researchers have investigated the efficacy of VR as a training tool in practice. Groer et al. (2010) demonstrated that simulated environments (i.e., a video projected onto a wall) can elicit similarly high levels of stress reactivity to lethal use of force as those experienced during real-life incidents. With evolvement in technology, Bertram et al. (2015) showed that the training transfer (measured by a complex task in reality) is similar in VR SBT and RL SBT indicating that training in VR may lead to similar performance outcomes as training in reallife. More recently, VR has been used to explore police officers’ psychophysiological responses (i.e., electroencephalographic and heart rate variability parameters) to firearm shooting tasks (Muñoz et al., 2020). Moreover, Binsch et al. (2022) found that preparation for police surveillance tasks was more effective for performance and recovery when done in VR compared to real-life. Taken together, these findings highlight that VR can be an effective tool for training cognitiveperceptual skills (Harris et al., 2021) and retaining and applying police-specific knowledge (Saunders et al., 2019). However, little is known about how police officers respond to dynamic, interactive VR SBT physically and psychologically. On-duty, police officers engage in physically and psychologically demanding tasks (Andersen et al., 2016). In training, these task demands should be reflected in the responses of police officers
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTk4NDMw