A total of 63 students enrolled in the Criminology and Criminal Justice program at Arizona State University visited VirTra’s headquarters last year to experience the technology in action. The students eagerly crowded around the five-screen V-300® to watch as their fellow classmates ran through a scenario. On the opposite side of the room, more students were practicing marksmanship on the three-screen V-180®.
ASU & VirTra Criminal Justice Partnership
ASU has visited VirTra for the past three years, allowing their criminal justice students to learn from hands-on experience rather than through a lecture. Professor of Practice Bob Robson and Associate Professor Dr. Danielle Wallace watched as their students enjoyed interacting with the simulators, knowing that this experience brought a lot of understanding to their studies. Both professors know some of these students – mostly juniors and seniors – could become officers one day and believe that experiencing reality-based training scenarios and the stress they bring will prepare them for the future.
“Taking students through the scenarios that real police officers go through…For them to have this experience early on gives them a better sense of what reality is all about” said Professor Robson, noting that the students in his class may end up in law enforcement or as attorneys. “My class is a Police Accountability course, and this is the perfect place to learn.”
How Criminal Justice Students Benefit
Criminal Justice students – such as the class from ASU – can benefit tremendously from VirTra’s training curriculum and simulators. Training provided by a simulator cannot be replicated through a lecture. Students must experience what it is like on the field using technology that brings them as close to real life as it gets. “I want them to interact,” said Professor Robson. “They’ve never had an opportunity to learn the stresses and strains that a police officer has to go under with only seconds to think.”
Universities may have the opportunity to purchase a simulator through state contracts or police training funds. It is applicable for both university police and classroom use, as both future and current law enforcement officials can train. Whether instructors choose to put students through heart-racing scenarios or practice marksmanship, Criminal Justice students can learn best in a simulated environment that allows them to experience stress inoculation and practice judgmental use-of-force decision making to better understand life on the force.
Students studying criminal justice typically seek employment in one of three of the major components: law enforcement, the court system, or the criminal corrections system. In any of these three cases, use of force simulators in the classroom can enhance their knowledge and understanding of the inner workings of criminal justice in several ways.
The Criminal Justice System in the Media
Criminal justice students, just like everyone else, pick up the newspaper, read stories online, or watch the news. Thanks to the prevalence of media today, there are plenty of stories about how a police officer made the wrong choice, costing someone his or her life, or how a judge was too lenient (or too harsh) with a sentence, or even how a corrections officer abused his or her authority. Sometimes, these stories are founded in truth. Other times, they are media observations and second-hand stories of events. Either way, police officers, judges, and even corrections officers spend a lot of time in the limelight, and more often than not, it’s negative.
How Use of Force Simulators Help Each of the Three Components
Because not all criminal justice students will inevitably become law enforcement officials, it is important to examine how the students destined for the judicial and corrections systems can benefit from judgmental use of force training simulators.
- Law Enforcement – Students who will inevitably go into law enforcement are on the front lines. These are the individuals who will face dangerous situations each and every day, even during routine traffic stops. Judgmental use of force simulation trains them to deescalate situations appropriately depending on the suspect’s behaviors, actions, and the unique situation.
- Judicial System – Though judges, lawyers, prosecutors, and others aren’t directly in the line of fire, they can also benefit from use of force training simulation. When these individuals better understand the pressures and the situations law enforcement officials face, they can make better decisions themselves, whether their duties involve prosecuting a criminal, defending a criminal, or even handing down a criminal’s sentence.
- Corrections System – Most students going into the corrections line of work will not have access to firearms due to the inherent dangers of carrying a firearm in a jail or prison setting. However, this does not take away from these students’ need to learn more about how to deescalate situations. Simulations can train corrections officers how to handle everything from an aggressive inmate to psychological preparation for close quarter encounters. When these officers are better prepared, they can make better decisions and get things under control more quickly.
Real-World Training and Preparation
In the end, judgmental use of force simulator training is beneficial to anyone and everyone considering a job in the criminal justice system. It is all about giving these students access to what really happens each day – not just what the media tells them. Though reporters work hard to provide only the facts, it is easy for facts to be misleading, and it can give criminal justice students a false sense of the real world. By incorporating use of force simulators in the classroom, and by properly training these students to handle various scenarios, they can have a better understanding of what the job is truly like, not only for themselves, but for others, too.
Judgmental use of force simulator training is not just for police officers and military officials. In fact, this training can serve anyone in criminal justice well by providing them with true-to-life experiences and training them how to react. It is highly customizable to serve each student’s personal needs, as well, which can make it an invaluable learning tool.
TEMPE, AZ – November 29, 2011 – VirTra Systems (VTSI.PK), a leading provider of firearms trainingsystems to Military, Law Enforcement agencies and accredited criminal justice programs, today announced a contract award for a VirTra 300 use of force training simulator from Northwest College located in Powell, Wyoming.
“Northwest College is among a growing number of innovative criminal justice programs incorporating our use of force simulators to better prepare students for careers in law enforcement,” says Bob Ferris, CEO, VirTra Systems. “The VirTra 300 allows students to develop the decision-making skills required by officers in the real world.”
VirTra Systems is recognized as the leading manufacturer of state of the art firearm training simulators. Far beyond video games, our highly realistic, immersive simulator systems provide a wide range of training scenarios. Top Law Enforcement and Military organizations all over the world recognize the high level of quality training offered by VirTra’s firearm training simulators.
But VirTra’s clientele list doesn’t end there.
VirTra Systems’ simulators also apply in the academic realm.Consider the recent purchase of a VirTra Systems 300 police training simulator by the Criminal Justice Department of the United Tribes Technical College in North Dakota.
TEMPE, AZ – February 01, 2011 – Don Andrus, VirTra Systems’ President and COO (VTSI.PK), today announced the sale of the fifth firearms simulator to the Institute of Technology, Stockton. The Institute of Technology is one of the country’s premier institutions, which provides exceptional career education at multiple campuses throughout California.
VirTra is the only company that produces a five-screen judgmental use of force simulator with seamless video in the industry, making it far more realistic, challenging and demanding than traditional simulators – there simply is not a better level of preparation for law enforcement.