State pays $2 million for virtual training for Arizona officers

PHOENIX — To shoot or not to shoot? Cops usually only have a split second to decide.

Arizona is now spending more than $2.1 million on virtual training simulators to help law enforcement officers across the state make those decisions.

“I don’t need to tell you what’s been going on the last couple of years especially with our law enforcement,” said Arizona State Sen. Steve Smith. “Number one, keeping our brave officers safe, and number two, making sure that our citizens feel safe too.”

The money will buy seven training simulators from Tempe-based VirTra.

“This is not your Hogan’s Alley video game anymore, where you shoot the bad guy, and don’t shoot the good guy, and there’s your police training,” said Smith.

The 300-degree, 5-screen immersive simulator allows real world scenarios where officers can decide to shoot or negotiate, while the simulator’s operator can make the suspect give-in or attack.

“This gives them the full encompassing training that they’re going to need,” he said.

The simulators also give a shock of electricity, called Threat-Fire, to offer stress and consequences to training. (PLEA President Ken Crane is shocked at 1:10 in the video at the bottom)

The numerous scenarios are constantly evolving and feature things like de-escalation, officer involved shootings, school shootings and more.

“What do you do if you’re an officer and you see somebody that looks a certain way, wearing [a certain] something, with their hands in their pocket?” he asked. “What should you say to them, what shouldn’t you say, and what happens when it changes?”

Dr. Ann Hart, president of the Maricopa County NAACP, says we all have prejudices and this training could help.

“It provides a choice,” Hart said. “It gives police officers a better opportunity to utilize more options that create a safe decision.”

We all have prejudices, she said, and this training could help before officers are in uniform.

“And before you’re confronted with a situation of a particular person or persons who may have a hoodie on, or sagging or have a beanie on their head,” she said. “That’s the decision that causes knee-jerk reactions and trigger-happy police officers who’ve made faulty decisions in the past.”

This training gives officers a chance to choose something other than deadly force in a safe training environment, she said.

The new virtual reality training units will go to DPS headquarters, the Mesa Police Department and five law enforcement training academies statewide.

*WARNING: THIS VIDEO CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES AND LANGUAGE

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