VR offers New York police completely new training opportunities

VR glasses are still very popular and many large multimedia companies are now launching their own VR glasses on the market. VR glasses are no longer limited to video games. The fact that all kinds of scenarios can be projected is now being utilised by the NYPD. With the help of V-Armeda company that specialises in developing training exercises for the army, police and emergency services, the New York Police Department is now training its own operational skills and procedures.

In a video by ABC7, a team from the NYPD has now been accompanied on such a training mission.

In a specially converted warehouse in Brooklyn, you can see how police officers, equipped with VR glasses, various sensors and modified AirSoft weapons, walk through the hall and are completely immersed in the "game world". The next image shows where the police officers are at the moment: in action. And these virtual situations look very different. Sometimes you are in a school where a gunman is hiding and has taken hostages, sometimes you are at the World Trade Centre where a terrorist is opening fire on passers-by. "It's very exciting and realistic and therefore a great training aid to gain experience for an emergency," says John Schoppmann, part of the NYPD Counterterrorism Unit. V-Armed makes it possible for the police officers to be provided with all kinds of statistics after the training mission in order to analyse and improve their operational skills.

VR training for extreme situations

The aim of V-Armed is for more and more police stations across the country to use this method to prepare their officers even better for possible extreme situations such as rampages or terrorist attacks and thus save many lives in an emergency.