Ohio’s 33,000 peace officers got a glimpse of the future last summer when the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy introduced immersive virtual reality as part of a package of sweeping changes to better prepare officers and recruits for the demands of their job in the 21st century.
Now, just months since the VR rollout, OPOTA is pushing ahead in two key areas of the program: expanding its library of VR video scenarios and developing a network of certified trainers across the state.
To date, OPOTA has distributed about 160 VR headsets to its six regional training partners and to academies at major metropolitan police departments and the State Highway Patrol.
The headsets are currently loaded with six videos focusing on suicide prevention, the teen brain, mental health, domestic violence, irate families and school violence. The videos, each 8 to 12 minutes, are designed to strengthen an officer’s crisis-management techniques by developing their critical thinking and communication skills.
A second series of six videos is in the pipeline and will be uploaded to the headsets in the first half of 2025, said Robert Strausbaugh, OPOTA’s director of advanced training. Filming has wrapped up and post-production editing is underway.
The second video series complements content from the first. For example, a video in series one hinted at a possible sex trafficking connection. In series two, that storyline is further developed and used as the basis of another video.
The other major area of emphasis for OPOTA is building up a corps of certified instructors throughout Ohio.
As of early December, 176 instructors had been trained and certified in six sessions at OPOTA, beginning with instructors from the Close to Home regional sites. OPOTA Executive Director Tom Quinlan has authorized the six regional providers to offer instructor-level courses to build the pool of certified trainers.
OPOTA also encourages law enforcement agencies to partner with neighboring departments to expand training. For example, a small agency might consider getting VR training for its staff by partnering with an adjacent larger agency that has a certified instructor.
Strausbaugh said that virtually all of the agency chiefs or sheriffs he has spoken to have indicated a desire to buy VR headsets of their own. In those cases, OPOTA will advise the agencies on which model to buy and upload the videos at no charge. Upon the advice of their legal advisers, agencies might choose to use CPT reimbursement money to buy the headsets.
VR use in both basic and advanced law enforcement training is still in its early stages, and Ohio is in the vanguard.
OPOTA’s training emphasizes situational decision-making, which has been shown by researchers to decrease use of force, discretionary arrests and officer injuries. It is designed to develop “soft skills” (such as listening and de-escalation techniques) rather than tactical skills (such as shooting or making arrests).
Once trainees don the headsets, they are “dropped” into the virtual world of the scenario, which offers a 360-degree perspective that enables them to turn to look in all directions.
VR training activates several senses at once and accommodates various learning styles better than traditional classroom courses. Consequently, it generally improves a person’s ability to process, distill and retain key information, allowing for more thorough and faster learning.
Multiple lesson plans exist for each video because each can be used to train officers across a range of roles, including first-line supervisors, field training officers, patrol officers and tactical officers.
VR training can be used to fulfill the state’s annual continuing professional training (CPT) requirement, but only if the VR training follows the lesson plans written by OPOTA.
Questions about OPOTA’s VR training should be directed to Administrative Assistant Stephanie Parish, who can be reached at 740-845-2480 or Stephanie.Parish@OhioAGO.gov.