Students and administrators at the Gary Area Career Center welcomed officials from the Gary Police Department to utilize specialized virtual reality training equipment to practice de-escalation tactics. The students were enrolled in a criminal justice class, which can lead them into a career in law enforcement or law.
In pairs, the high school students and police officers participated in simulations where they stood in the middle of a trifold screen armed with prop weapons and wore a prop gunshot-wound remote to let them know if they had been shot during the simulation. A projector played one of 350 randomized scenarios, where the student and officer interacted with the scenario by giving commands, speaking to subjects and, if need be, shooting their weapons.
Criminal Justice Instructor Colonel Richard Ligon said he has been trying to get the equipment or something like it for years to give the students an example of what they may face if they choose a career in law enforcement.
"This is not a video game, this is a training tool," Ligon said. "When we talk about de-escalation, we talk about respect for law enforcement."
The equipment was manufactured by training simulator company VirTra. The gear the school used, a V-180 monitor, VirTra's website says is meant to prepare officers, military personnel, educators, security teams and public safety professionals for real-world challenges.
A flyer shared at the event from VirTra was marketed towards high school resource officers. The simulation Tuesday did not include prop mace or a prop rifle.
In the first simulation, senior Keyshaun Brown and Superintendent Yvonne Stokes were armed with prop handguns. The two pulled over a mysterious white truck in a secluded wooded nighttime setting. The passengers exited the truck in a panic. When an actor who was ducking behind a hostage pointed his firearm at Brown and Stokes, Brown shot the offender. Brown also shot at a person who fled the immediate area and attempted to shoot them.
In the next scenario, another high school student and a police officer responded to a mass shooting. In that scenario, the officer's character did get shot, which sent a light response to his remote.
"It woke me up," the officer said, when asked if it hurt.
The third scenario was also a mass shooting incident.
In the fourth scenario, the student and officer pulled over a drunk driver who had crashed outside of his home. The driver shot at the student and officer, who then shot back. In that case, the student and officer shot at the driver's wife after she had reached for her husband's weapon.
In a fifth scenario, the police officer and the student were ambushed by assailants after being distracted by a low-level call.
After the scenario, Police Chief Derrick Cannon said that the officer and student made the right call.
"We don't want our officers to second-guess and end up on the opposite end," Cannon said. "If there's a member of the public here, we want them to know that at no point in time that when you engage with an officer, you should reach for a gun."
In a real-life scenario, Cannon said the most likely course of action would be to try to retrieve the driver's weapon before his wife was able to reach for it.
The $200,000 VirTra training technology was purchased by the school district using federal Perkins V funds, which can only be used for career and technical education programs.
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