Sound of the Police—Virtual Reality Training for Police Communication for High-Stress Operations

• Published in: Multimodal technologies and interaction Vol. 8; no. 6; p. 46
• Main Authors: Mu, Uhl, Jakob Carl, Atzmüller, Lisa Maria, Regal, Georg, Roither, Michael
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.06.2024
• Subjects: Communication; Law enforcement; Police; Police training; Realism; Teams; Traffic accidents & safety; Trainers; training; Virtual reality; Visualization; Germany
• DOI: 10.3390/mti8060046
• ISSN: 2414-4088

Police communication is a field with unique challenges and specific requirements. Police officers depend on effective communication, particularly in high-stress operations, but current training methods are not focused on communication and provide only limited evaluation methods. This work explores the potential of virtual reality (VR) for enhancing police communication training. The rise of VR training, especially in specific application areas like policing, provides benefits. We conducted a field study during police training to assess VR approaches for training communication. The results show that VR is suitable for communication training if factors such as realism, reflection and repetition are given in the VR system. Trainer feedback shows that assistive systems for evaluation and visualization of communication are highly needed. We present ideas and approaches for evaluation in communication training and concepts for visualization and exploration of the data. This research contributes to improving VR police training and has implications for communication training in VR in challenging contexts.