Training empathy in police officers?
In an article published by Washington Post just a few days ago, new innovative technology was highlighted and was designed for law enforcement training. A few weeks ago, I did a post that mentioned the controversy of body cameras, and one of the biggest suppliers of that tech is developing this new training tech for police. However, this training I am personally very excited for.
Times are changing, and more and more of police mistakes are being exposed to the media. It is no longer acceptable for cops to use their gut reaction to respond to a scenario. A lot of scenarios require intense empathy training that is long overdue. In an attempt to solve this issue, they are creating scenarios within virtual reality that allows officers to practice a reaction without any real consequences. In the past, the article states, this technology has been used to show officers the difference between strange behavior from an autistic person, and strange behavior from a threatening person. This has saved countless lives in an attempt to get rid of the “shoot first, ask questions later” excuse.
In the latest VR tech, they are working on suicide prevention training. It takes a lot of training to show cops how to actively talk someone down to safety during an active suicide attempt. But how would you practice this? You can’t roleplay that kind of thing. The article does a great job at explaining why it’s so important, mentioning a study linking about 19% of fatal cop shootings to victims with mental illnesses. This VR allows cops to see a person standing on the edge of a roof, and gives them options of how to approach. These are quite literally life-saving precautions, and a form a police technology that I am completely on board with.