Westerville police department unveils new interactive training tool for officers

WESTERVILLE, Ohio (WCMH) -- The Westerville Division of Police introduces a new interactive tool to prepare officers for different scenarios.

Westerville Police is the only police department in Central Ohio utilizing new interactive technology to help prepare officers for different scenarios. According to Lieutenant Aaron Dickison, the special technology prepares officers for just about everything they could encounter on the job.  

"We can go from de-escalation to less lethal to no crime being committed to a lethal offense all within the same scenario without having to set up or change our role players," Lt. Dickison said.

Lt. Dickison said the 'VirTra Use of Force Simulator' has made a world of difference especially when it comes to training new officers in the police academy. 

The Westerville Division of Police trains officers from all over Central Ohio, except Columbus. As they go through the police academy, they're put through immersive and realistic scenarios using the simulator.

It's made up of five different screens, giving officers a 300-degree perspective of a scene. Lt. Dickison said the technology serves as a much more efficient way to teach things like decision-making and situational awareness which he said are all things new officers need to learn.

"Technology, it's here," Lt. Dickison said. "And law enforcement, even on the training side, has to get on board."

The simulator allows them to train more officers at a time, rather than the type of scenarios where they have to hire role players and interrupt the community. 

"It's really hard to set up a bank robbery," Lt. Dickison said. "Banks don't let us shut those down, right? So, we have ran training for our officers through this where a super realistic training where we have actually seen officers breathing heavy, sweating, we can see that their nerves are up."

From new recruits in the police academy to school resource officers and field training officers, the goal is to get everyone trained on it. 

The simulator plays reenactments of actual scenarios law enforcement officers face, but Lt. Dickison said it doesn't take the place of live-action types of scenarios. 

"What this does is it allows us to get 20 officers through a scenario very efficiently where we can teach them decision making, situational awareness, officer presence, all of those things that new officers need to learn," Lt. Dickison said.

The outcome of each scenario can be manipulated depending on what areas officers need help learning. 

"If I pick up on that we have a recruit or an officer who's struggling with talking to people in de-escalation, well then obviously I can change the scenario there to a de-escalation scenario," Lt. Dickison said.

Officers use their own unloaded weapons with VirTra's tracking system which allows them to gather instant results like reaction time and total shots fired. All five screens have the ability to replicate hundreds of real-life scenarios from active shooter situations to traffic stops which forces officers to pay attention to what's in front and behind them.

"What we're looking for is did the officer observe the traffic violation that he just saw the guy running the stop sign," Lt. Dickison said. 

Lt. Dickison said the technology is so realistic that he's watched officers get worked up. He said some have even forgotten it was a fake scenario and not real life.

According to Lt. Dickison, they've seen the biggest success with scenarios related to shootings. He said what they're finding is a lot of new police recruits have little to no firearm experience, so the simulator allows officers to train with their weapons in a safe environment to get the basics down before moving to the live fire range. 

There are only three locations in the state that have the five-screen simulator: Westerville Police Department, the Monroe City Police Department, and Cuyahoga Community College.