Take Action

Help Your Community Change

Our cities and states must be held accountable for our law enforcement, just as our officers are. After all, city and state governments control police funding, which determines the quality of their training. Less funding results in reduced-quality training and outdated equipment—leaving officers ill prepared for the challenges of the field.

Instead, law enforcement must be provided with the best training possible. After all, our community safety relies on it. An increase in training quality results in officers having more knowledge, tools and abilities to handle any situation—from mental illness to suicide. The higher cost of training is worth protecting the highest cost: the lives of our citizens.

VirTra has discussed the need for modern training for decades. So much so that “A Higher Level of Training” became our trademark slogan. An increase in police training quality is our message, and now, we ask you to help us push it forward! Communities everywhere should except nothing less than requiring police to be trained at the highest level possible.

To help, VirTra created a downloadable email template below for community members to reach out to city council and officials. Customize the text to fit your city, country and state for a relevant, powerful email.

Modern, Realistic Training

Essential For Today's Law Enforcement

“We have to ask the public, ‘How can we help you suffer less?’ And we do that by ensuring our deputies have realistic training”

—Henry County Sheriff Reginald Scandrett.

  • De-Escalation Training For Law Enforcement

  • Nationally-Certified Mental Illness Curriculum

  • Nationally-Certified Mental Illness Curriculum Con't

  • Henry County

Helping Spark Change

With Simulation Training for Police

Do you remember sitting in school as teachers droned on in never-ending lectures? Obviously long lectures do not ensure the concept is understood by students. The same concept applies to police; training must be a combination of lectures, presentations and hands-on, realistic, immersive training. Classroom training teaches the new ideas, whereas simulators allow officers to practice the new skills in a real-life situation—helping solidify the new skills.

How simulation training works is simple: officers are surrounded by large screens showing high-quality video featuring professional actors. Depending on what the officer says or does, the scenario will branch in a new path and continue to branch until the scenario is complete. This makes training realistic, as it shows officers the consequence of their actions.

Officers can learn to develop communication, de-escalation and cognitive skills with all types of real-world simulation scenarios. This includes: mental illness crises, domestic violence disputes, hostage situations and more. It is critical officers make mistakes, learn, and have better outcomes in the simulator than out on our streets.

The Solution For Your Community

If you would like to be a part of this change—and equip our local and state law enforcement with high quality, modern training—consider reaching out to your local official to spread the word. Some cities and counties simply do not allocate the proper resources for agencies to be able to train with realistic de-escalation simulators.

Together, we will change this. Start improving your officer’s skillset by improving their training.