North Mankato Police deploy Virtual Reality to train officers

For law enforcement professionals to best protect and serve their communities, they need continuous training. The North Mankato Police Department continues its commitment to providing the best training for its officers and utilizing the latest technology to do so.

North Mankato Police have recently deployed a robust virtual reality (VR) training package offered by AXON Technologies to save time and money, improve officers’ crisis management skills, foster empathy for diverse viewpoints, and create more realistic training scenarios.

In addition, the VR package includes a community engagement module where individuals can experience interactive scenarios in which they themselves are the police officers responding to calls. It educates citizens on the challenges of being a police officer and being faced with situations requiring split second decision making.

“This training experience immerses officers in realistic scenarios and training content to better equip them for the realities and challenges of police work.” says Chief of Police Ross Gullickson. “Moreover, we can conduct training more often, more realistically, with little to no expense, and engage our community partners. It is indeed a valued investment for our staff.”

Scenarios are regularly updated by AXON Technologies, so officers will have new scenarios and training content.