Stress is an essential addition to a trainee’s regime. Critical decision-making and problem solving become more difficult in a stress-induced atmosphere and requires plenty of practice to learn how to navigate these situations. If a law enforcement trainee cannot learn to execute the correct actions in a controlled environment, what are the chances they will in the unpredictable environment of the field?

There are multiple ways to introduce stress. However, keep in mind that these stressors should only be added after trainees are competent in the desired action or rule. Failure to understand a technique before the pressure is added will only result in confusion.

Motivation During Simulation Training

Administering pain, or threatening to, causes trainees to become anxious and compliant. Instructors can use this to their advantage, as physical pain removes the resistance of “I have to.” Use of force training is filled with commands which leaves students thinking “I have to complete this scenario” rather than “I am excited to learn from and engage in this scenario”.

Physical pain replaces this resistance with motivation while adding an extra layer of stress. Pain forces trainees to become engaged with the training scenario and teaches them to complete the exercise while overcoming the distraction due to the perceived risk of pain.

VirTra’s use of force simulations offer a pain element through the Threat-Fire®, a small box that clips onto a trainee’s belt. When activated by the instructor, the Threat-Fire releases a small electronic impulse that adds real-world consequences to the simulations. This effectively adds stress and emotion to the wearer while enhancing the effectiveness of simulation training.

Fear of Failure

Instructors can use their trainee’s fear of failure to their advantage. People are painfully familiar with negative emotions caused by failing—disappointment, anger, frustration, sadness—and strive to avoid these emotions. Add this to the idea of failing in front of peers and more negative emotions are added—embarrassment, shame—another avoidance.

Start by having trainees perform an exercise in front of their peers and watch as the added pressure sparks fear, motivation or anxiety. Overcoming this fear requires a significant amount of practice for both trainees and instructors, as instructors must learn to work with reactions ranging from forgetfulness to confidence.

Fear of failure comes with other training benefits. Continuing with the idea of performing in front of a class, students in the audience are inspired to learn from the mistakes and correct choices of those who have gone before. As students make the conscious decision to perform a certain way, even if it is to avoid embarrassment in front of an audience, the lesson is better remembered.

Simulator Training & Competition

Using competition as a stress-inducer is tricky, as the amount of stress created depends on the student. The goal of training competitions is to force trainees to focus on and complete a situation, to master corresponding physical and mental skills, with the added pressure to perform better than a competitor. The problem is that some trainees thrive in competition whereas others become flustered.

The type of pressure built also depends on the type of competition. Will the winner be the student who completes a scenario the quickest or the one who does a better job overall? If time is of the ultimate essence, students may forget a step as they race to the end. On the other hand, the stress of knowing they must follow a checklist of instructions perfectly, heightened by a competition, may cause forgetfulness. Practice placing trainees in a variety of competitions so they learn from different types of stress.

Stress and heightened emotion are powerful tools in the classroom. These components ensure trainees understand how to perform in the high-emotion situations they may face in the field. VirTra simulations are a great resource for adding stress while teaching students through a variety of situational outcomes. Contact us to learn more.

Train hard, stay safe and keep it consistent.

When the time dedicated to training your team is limited, it can be easy to run the same few drills multiple time. Did you know there are a hundred ways to use your VirTra simulator to benefit your law enforcement or military training program? If your training format has become routine, here are a few ideas on how your team can incorporate a few fresh ideas to keep your team on their toes:

Training for error

When you are in the field, there is almost no chance to get into a perfect stance every time you have to fire your weapon. When training skills by inducing errors that have to be overcome, you can optimize your reaction and add a new level of difficulty for training safely on the VirTra simulator. The V-100® simulator offers a portable solution where you can easily add balance and stability trainers to help remove the stable mundane environment and have something new for trainees to learn. With new physical obstacles to overcome, you can add a new level of difficulty to your training environment that trainees can adapt to and master.

Add realistic props to create coverage

Whether you’re using the portable single screen V-100 or the fully immersive high fidelity V-300®, you can add simple accessories to help create the coverage you would be looking to find when conducting fieldwork. The addition of wood or 3D props in the training environment can also drive training points centered around topics like active shooter drills and other de-escalation scenarios. Keep in mind, if you’re going to go for that level of realism the props you introduce into the scenario must fit the situation. With props added to the scenarios, your team can have actual cover and concealment they can use tactically to work through the scenario in a realistic, 3D environment.

Explore more branching options

VirTra’s unique scenarios contain up to 85 different decision-making paths to possible resolutions. While most officers might like to get through training as quickly as possible, it can be useful to slow down and explore what happens when a curveball is thrown in the middle of a scenario. Especially if this is not the trainees first time through the simulator, exploring multiple branching options in the use of force or de-escalation training scenarios to see how the trainee reacts to the dialog within a scene can be a useful teaching moment. Testing their patients by exploring more dialog branches can hone their skills for de-escalation the person and teach communication skills. Those valuable teaching moments can turn into significant savings on possible litigation for the officer reacting too hasty under pressure.

Pair training with a Threat Fire®

VirTra’s one of a kind patented technology allows your team to get a sudden jolt when simulating return fire, bombs detonating, being run over, and more from the training scenario. More importantly, this shoot back device raises the stakes while in the simulation training which induces a physiological change in the trainee when zapped which influences their overall performance. In fact, the Threat-Fire was recently featured in a clinical study that showed that the use of the Threat-Fire improved performance of the trainees. By adding this tool to your training in the V-300 simulator, you can improve your team’s performance over other forms of training.

Build custom scenarios

While there are hundreds of options to pick from in the VirTra scenario library for any of our simulators, there is always room for improvement. If your team has specific geography that you want to train your team on or something creative you want to incorporate with a scenario, you can create scenarios with our V-Author® tool. This unique software allows you to go out and take panoramic photos of any local area you would like to set a scene up in and create your scenario to customize training in your VirTra V-180® or V-300 simulator. You can even film people to be in the scene so that the realism places like a farm or a mountain area feels more realistic with characters that would naturally be in that location.

Training with simulation training has shown to have a whole host of benefits from improved performance and increased situational awareness. However, to gain those benefits, trainers must keep making changes and improvements to their curriculum. By adding things like props and a stability training ball to help spice things up, your team can reengage with the scenarios in a new way. Another great way to enhance training is to take full advantage of the additional tools available with the VirTra simulators like the Threat-Fire and V-Author software to create your unique scenarios. These tips can help improve the number of people you can train. Your training with VirTra should also maximize the level of engagement to enhance learning and keep your community safe.

If you would like more info on how to improve your training with VirTra, click here to learn more.

From Immersion to Presence

What is it like using a use of force training simulator? The call comes through your radio, “Armed robbery in progress at the corner market.” At once you feel a rush knowing the seriousness of what you are responding to. Upon arrival, the backdrop of your locale surrounds you, immersing you in a familiar environment. In the background, the sound of multiple sirens gets louder and louder as backup is screaming towards your location. Over the radio, dispatch relays that they are on the phone with a customer inside the store who says the gunman is still inside. You begin to feel the tension in this high-risk situation that has the potential to go very bad, very quickly.

As you set up a perimeter, the suspect emerges as you draw down on him with your weapon, one that has the same familiarity of your own duty weapon. When he sees you, he fires a shot in your direction. The sound of the gunshot reverberates around you. You begin to experience an adrenaline dump under immense pressure. You return fire as he darts back inside. This has now become a hostage situation.

As things deteriorate, you are startled by the distinctive sound of shattering glass as the suspect breaks out a window and begins barking orders to back off.  Suddenly and unexpectedly, someone runs out of the front door and you must make a split-second use of force determination if it is an unarmed civilian or the suspect fleeing the store. After making a near instantaneous assessment, you hold your fire when you don’t see a gun. You then realize that the suspect is still inside when he continues to appear in the window every few moments while screaming demands.

Your senses are in a state of heightened awareness as you have felt the percussion of occasional gunfire echoing around you, the vibration of a police chopper overhead, and the anxiety of knowing that you could ultimately experience the very real pain of an electric jolt simulating being shot.

During this law enforcement training situation you understand the reality of your use of force actions and how it determines if people live or die. You are keenly aware that you must slow the situation by using law enforcement de-escalation skills to bring emotions down until a negotiator arrives, or it’s resolved without injury or loss of life to innocent civilians.

How this incident plays out depends on your abilities and the actions you take, while the trainer ultimately directs the scenario accordingly. Once the simulation training scenario is complete and you take a step back, you realize that you were immersed in a tense use of force training scenario in a virtual reality simulator. The feelings, sounds, pressures, and even the anxiety were real.

Immersion Use of Force Training

This judgmental use of force scenario represents true, full-immersion, virtual law enforcement simulation training. Immersion into a training simulators virtual reality is the perception of being physically present in a non-physical world. Not only will what you see and hear appear real, you will also feel as though you are physically present. Everywhere you look you are met with the engrossing sights and sounds of a completely virtual world.

Immersion use of force training for law enforcement focuses on features that influence or invoke a sense of realism. At the low end, features are used to construct a representation of the environment. Higher levels of use of force simulator immersion have the potential to enhance learners’ feelings of presence, or the perception of actually being in a particular environment.

Law Enforcement Simulation-Based Training

It is important for law enforcement and military personnel to train with as much realism as possible to better prepare for active threat situations that they will inevitably encounter. Real-world in field performance is often directly correlated to the realism of use of force training. In short, the more realistic and intense the training exercise, the more skills that can be transferable to a real-world situation.

It is critically important to make law enforcement simulated training as realistic as possible. This higher standard for law enforcement simulation training in engagement skills and judgmental use of force simulation training leads to improved real-world skills for the trainees.

Simulation-based training can engage the officer in the simulation training they need to respond, think through, and successfully end a critical incident.

Simulator Training Content and Special Effects

One of the most important aspects of any law enforcement and military use of force training system is the quality of the content. The degree to which the virtual or artistic environment faithfully reproduces reality determines the degree of suspension of disbelief. The greater the suspension of disbelief, the greater the degree of presence achieved. This is achieved through law enforcement and military training quality content and special effects.

Intense, realistic simulator scenarios, which are displayed using a combination of excellent visual and audio equipment, provide the most realistic simulation scenario-based training content for both law enforcement and military.

To enhance the richness of a truly immersive virtual reality simulator training experience, accurate environmental sounds and spatial characteristics are a must. Additional features, such as still images/graphics, 300° HD video, surround-sound, and special effects can be added to the information stream. It should also include the ability to adjust atmospheric conditions, and integration of other tools such as flashlights, Axon® TASER®, lethal, and less lethal use of force training scenarios.

Interactivity Simulator and Collaboration Training

Interaction is the technology’s ability to change the scene from the point of view of the participants and the ability to alter their physical position and to manipulate objects. Interactivity is itself an important design consideration. It captures an important structural element of training – the level at which the training is offered.

In addition, interactivity is critical for ensuring the simulator training realism of team or collaborative performance. The technology must offer a level of information richness capable of supporting the high degree of interactivity inherent in collaborative learning and performance environments.

VirTra Simulators

A key component of the VirTra mission is to make firearms training simulators as realistic as possible. VirTra invests in simulator technology and actors to recreate the real-world in simulation training exercises. This investment provides realistic 3D audio and special effects, realistic recoil training firearms, electronic impulse return fire device capabilities.

From marksmanship to the most challenging judgmental use-of-force decision simulation, the VirTra 300 LE is an essential tool for law enforcement training programs. Judgmental use-of-force training mode supplies a library of realistic scenario training taken from after action reports in a highly challenging 300-degree training platform. The optional stage and audio system provides over 2,000 watts of audio, and transducers mean simulated sounds feel real and adrenal is felt during training.

Contact VirTra today to arrange a demo on how our immersive simulator technology can help train your officers in a realistic virtual environment.

One of the greatest risks in law enforcement is the proper management of the use of force. A survey conducted in the Midwest found that excessive force claims made up 17% of all liability claims made against police departments, and these claims cost about $4 million in losses. VirTra’s use of force scenarios and training simulators help police officers make better decisions in the real world. Through virtual real-life scenarios, they learn how and when to use force – whether it’s lethal or less lethal.

Proper Training to Reduce Risk via Use of Force Training Scenarios

Police officers face a multitude of dangerous situations during each and every shift, but adequate judgmental use of force training can help them prepare for the unexpected. After all, it is difficult to make assumptions about how to react in certain situations unless that situation comes up in real life. That is exactly what VirTra had in mind when creating its high-tech line of training simulators. The goal involves allowing police officers to experience situations in a virtual setting before they encounter them in the real world, which better prepares them and gives them the experience they need to make better on-the-spot decisions.

Firearms, Recoil, and Return Fire Training Use of Force Scenario

Knowing how and when to use a firearm is one thing, but understanding how that firearm will react when fired is another. Though officers regularly use firing ranges to get the feel for their firearms, shooting at a range and shooting during a dangerous encounter are not the same. Sometimes, officers may be required to fire their weapons from awkward positions, which can amplify the recoil and catch officers off-guard. Firearms simulators that incorporate real-life scenarios along with weapon recoil and simulated return fire better train officers how to react and respond.

Non-Lethal Force Training

Police officers hope they never need to fire their weapons, and it is their duty to exhaust all other means of subduing and apprehending a suspect before pulling the trigger. VirTra’s use of force training scenarios also provide training for non-lethal tools, including everything from OC to impact munition (12 gauge, 37mm, 40mm) and even TASER® devices. This real-life training gives officers the opportunity to see how a use of force scenario will play out if they choose to avoid using lethal force. These tools create a true-to-life reaction within the simulator.

Use of Force Scenarios That Change Based on Officers’ Decisions

VirTra understands that judgmental use of force training is not as effective when officers learn to anticipate what will come next in the scenario. That is why their products offer various outcomes that depend on the officers’ decisions along the way. For example, in an active shooter situation, the outcomes are different when the officer chooses to use a TASER and when they choose to use lethal force. Following the use of force training scenarios, debriefing can help officers learn why the decisions they made were correct or incorrect, thus giving them vital experience for real-world situations.

Judgmental use of force scenarios are important for the safety of not only the officers but also of the general public. Depending on the situation, quickly subduing and apprehending a suspect can save many lives. That’s why VirTra’s use of force training scenarios are so diverse and customizable – they seek to provide the best and most realistic training possible.

Interested in learning more or scheduling a demonstration? Contact a product specialist!

Police officers today have a wide range of crime-fighting tools available to them beyond just their service weapons as they perform their duties on the streets. They also have access to less lethal options, such as Axon® TASER®, kinetic energy rounds and OC or pepper spray, giving them additional choices when dealing with suspects in tense situations.

VirTra OC Spray Training

Yet to be ready to use those additional tools at a moment’s notice, officers need to regularly and safely practice operating them when dealing with criminal suspects and real-time crimes. That’s where the kinetic energy rounds, TASER and OC spray accessories available for VirTra’s use of force training simulators can be brought in to help officers better train for incidents when they will need to use de-escalation techniques and non-lethal force to control and subdue a suspect.

VirTra’s 12 gauge/37mm/40mm kinetic energy round accessories uses a laser within the simulator to represent these direct fire options. These dynamic training tools allow for higher stress, repetitive, skill building on these vital longer range less lethal options.

VirTra’s TASER accessory is modified to use a laser that “fires” at the display screens of the training simulator, rather than standard TASER stun equipment that strikes and disables suspects when they are shot. By allowing officers to use the same kinds of Taser devices in training that they will use on the street, it ensures they get and maintain real-world experience in operating the non-lethal devices so they are ready if they are needed.

The VirTra OC Spray accessory is a realistic-looking OC spray canister that is also modified to fire a laser rather than actual gas, giving officers the ability to train with the non-lethal crime-fighting tool while immersed in a training scenario on a VirTra use of force simulator.

The lasers in all products interact in real-time with the scenario videos being shown in the VirTra simulators, giving police officers the most realistic training they can receive. The suspects in the real videos featured in the simulators are affected by and react immediately to the officer’s use of the kinetic energy rounds, TASER or OC spray as part of the simulations.

By providing these training tools, officers get positive experiences in operating them to build their confidence and help them replicate their real-world, on-the-street use as closely as possible.

Several other accessories are also available for use with the simulators, including a low-light package that includes two special flashlights and other hardware and software which allows officers to simulate operations in low-light situations. The low-light option exposes the officers to the proper use of the flashlight and their weapon in such situations and teaches how to determine proper threat and target identification.

A specialty “breach door” accessory allows officers to practice how to break through a door when responding in an emergency. The device, which is specially designed to be re-useable for repeated entry by officers in training for close quarters battle (CQB) or room-clearing operations, gives officers experience with movements that are often not provided in standard training exercises. Officers can train in how to properly enter a room with their partner after breaching the door – when they still don’t know what is on the other side – enabling trainees to simulate this high-stress situation.

VirTra System Upgrades

In addition, VirTra offers other system upgrades that can enhance the use of its simulators. One upgrade is a 16-inch raised training platform for the simulator that brings officers up to the level of the display screens used by the systems, as well as an optional sound system that includes an amplifier and transducers to let officers “feel” the sounds they are hearing as they train. Also available are borderless display screens to make the videos seen by the officers even clearer and larger, eliminating a 5-inch black border between each screen in the standard versions. A touch-screen display option is also available for the computer system which is operated by an instructor to run the VirTra use of force training simulator.

All of these accessories and options are available in addition to VirTra’s patented Threat-Fire® Return Fire Simulator, which is a wireless, battery-operated electronic accessory that clips on an officer’s waist on a belt or clothing and can be used by a training instructor to add real-time threat and return fire simulation to an officer’s training experience.

Law Enforcement Use of Force Training

The patented VirTra Threat-Fire brings the ultimate in realism to law enforcement use of force training by adding the simulated – but noticeable – “consequences” of a suspect attacking an officer. The Threat-Fire jolts the trainee officer with an ultra-low-dose of an electrical charge to replicate the sensation of being assaulted during a high-stress situation on the street. The device safely simulates the pain of hostile attack using an electric stun, which can be adjusted in duration to up to 2.5 seconds.

The activation of the Threat-Fire Simulator is made even more effective because an officer undergoing use of force training in the V-300 or other VirTra use of force simulators doesn’t know when it will be activated by the training instructor. By randomly adding this consequence to the video training, officers can practice de-escalation techniques as well as the use of non-lethal weapons as they react to situations from domestic disputes to hostage use of force scenarios and more.

V-300® Use of Force Training Simulator

VirTra’s judgmental use of force training systems, such as its five-screen V-300 simulator, provide police officers with video-enhanced, real-world training scenarios that mirror situations officers experience on the street regularly in their jobs. The V-300 allows police officers to be surrounded by 300 degrees of realistic video simulations which allow them to become enmeshed in the crime incident scenarios unfolding around them. VirTra also offers a full line of other simulators in three-screen and single-screen configurations for every training requirement.

By VirTra

Judgmental use of force virtual reality training systems such as VirTra’s V-300 five-screen V-300 simulator provide police officers with video-enhanced, real-world training scenarios that mirror situations officers experience on the street regularly in their jobs. The V-300 allows police officers to be surrounded by 300 degrees of video use of force options training simulations which allow them to become enmeshed in the crime incident scenarios unfolding around them by offering a variety of force options training.

Virtual Reality Police Training

Making the virtual reality police training even more realistic is VirTra’s Threat-Fire, which is a wireless, battery-operated electronic accessory that clips on an officer’s waist on a belt or clothing and can be used by a training instructor to add real-time threat simulation to an officer’s use of force training experience.

The patented VirTra Threat-Fire device brings the ultimate in realism to law enforcement use of force training on VirTra systems by adding the simulated – but noticeable – “consequences” of a suspect attacking an officer. The Threat-Fire jolts the trainee officer with an ultra-low-dose of an electrical charge to replicate the sensation of being assaulted during a high-stress situation on the street. The device safely simulates the pain of hostile attack with an electric stun, which can be adjusted in duration to up to 2.5 seconds.

 

Threat-Fire Simulator Effectiveness

The activation of the Threat-Fire Simulator is made even more effective because an officer undergoing use of force training in the V-300 or other VirTra use of force simulators doesn’t know when it will be activated by the training instructor. By randomly adding this consequence to the video training systems, officers undergoing police simulator training are provided the maximum amount of realism and feedback as they react to situations from domestic disputes to hostage use of force scenarios and more.

In earlier use of force virtual reality simulator systems for police officers, simulated return fire was typically provided by paintball shots or through archaic return fire “cannons” that were mounted on top of the system’s display screen, aimed in the general direction of a trainee. Instead of providing true situational feedback, those devices failed to add realism, and instead often diverted a trainee from the true immersion they were trying to gain in the police training simulation they were undergoing. Threat-Fire can even simulate the risk to physical safety from assaults with edge weapons/impact weapons, animal attacks and even vehicular attacks, it goes beyond the simplistic “shoot-back” concept.

How’s the Threat-Fire Different?

That’s where Threat-Fire is vastly different. By attaching to a trainee’s belt before they enter a VirTra simulator, the Threat-Fire becomes an integrated part of the trainee’s equipment. The officer forgets it is there, but when a training instructor uses it to induce pain during a video scenario, the Threat-Fire kicks up the officer’s stress level and they react to that simulated pain in realistic ways in the moment. The feedback provided by the device makes the officer in the use of force training scenario more situationally aware and causes them to change their positions in reaction to the input from the device. The Threat-Fire instills a desired stress response for true realism. In such training, this is a critical goal – to get an officer’s heart rate elevated so they accurately feel how the stress of real-world crime scenarios begin to affect their individual decision-making, motor skills, cognitive thinking and overall performance.

 

The Threat-Fire is a training tool that provides real-life inputs and elicits genuine reactions and true-to-life situational immersion during high-stress training situations to make them as realistic as possible, because those are the times when officers on the street can have difficulty making split- second, critical use of force decisions.

Before simulator-based training like VirTra’s V-300 police simulator system, police officers had little access to realistic ways of practicing their reactions to deadly force encounters. When the bullets are flying, VirTra’s virtual reality police training systems and the Threat-Fire Simulator provide accurate and realistic simulations of those intense experiences, giving officers the ability to improve their control, understanding and confidence so they can vastly deepen and gain from their training.

TEMPE, AZ – August 14, 2009 – VirTra Systems, Inc. Bob Ferris, VirTra Systems’ CEO and president (OTC:VTSI.PK), today announced that VirTra has officially launched its newest and smallest Threat-Fire™ device, the V-Threat-Fire™.

VirTra’s V-Threat-Fire device safely simulates the pain of hostile return fire with a 300 millisecond electric stun (adjustable to 2.5 seconds). Enemies often try to use the element of surprise and this training accessory is being used worldwide to better prepare trainees. The V-Threat-Fire is a clip-on return fire simulator, similar in function to the Threat-Fire belt; however, the V-Threat-Fire is designed to clip-onto an officer or soldier’s duty belt for maximum efficiency. V-Threat-Fire is not only small, lightweight and designed to be unobtrusive, but it is also rechargeable and compatible with VirTra’s wireless system.  VirTra contends that adding V-Threat-Fire to a simulator provides more realistic and thorough training, with trainees experiencing heightened nervousness and stress during the simulated situation.

“We are thrilled and excited to announce our latest Threat-Fire technology, the V-Threat-Fire. Customers continue to tell us that our Threat-Fire™ line of return fire products have greatly increased the effectiveness of simulation training and version 2 will add a new advantage with its new and virtually undetectable size,” said Bob Ferris, CEO and President of VirTra Systems.

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