VR Tool a ‘Game Changer’ for Criminal Justice Students

EAST LIVERPOOL, Ohio – If there’s anything police officers know, it’s that there is no such thing as a “routine” call, and new equipment purchased for the city school district’s criminal justice class is helping students learn that quickly.

Unlike other Columbiana County schools, East Liverpool High School offers its own career-vocational tech program, and the criminal justice course is among those offered.

Instructor Chris Davis served 21 years as a police officer and K-9 handler at St. Clair Township Police Department, followed by the past four years teaching the criminal justice class. 

Davis said when he began teaching the class, he had one junior and one senior. It has now grown to a total of 15 students.

Since its inception, the class has often boasted having law enforcement training equipment that even the local police department didn’t possess. And at the end of October, equipment that Davis called a “game changer” was put into use.

Principal Bryian Burson successfully applied for a Perkins grant to purchase a Street Smarts virtual reality system, and Davis’ students have been using it on a daily basis.

According to Davis, the grant application and purchase is a testament to how the school district wants to bring the latest technology into what its students are learning.

“Virtual reality is the next step in training being offered. I demoed it myself three years ago and said to myself, there’s no other training these students are going to get that’s better,” Davis said, adding it will likely be between five and six years before this training is made available in the Ohio Police Officer Training program.

He said that, as a police officer, it’s frustrating to hear someone say something like “routine traffic stop.”

“There’s nothing ‘routine’ about a traffic stop,” Davis said. “That [description] drives me crazy.” 

Davis said the virtual reality system can put his students directly into a multitude of situations, including a traffic stop, and what happens during that interaction is up to him.

“I can make [the stop] run smoothly or I can make it go bad,” Davis said.

Unlike some virtual training equipment already in use, this new system is more interactive. “You’re in a different world,” Davis said.

The students actually interact with the suspects, talking to them and making split-second decisions that can involve anything from an ASP (Armament Systems and Procedures) or pepper spray to a stun gun or a gun. 

The training equipment allows students to feel as if they’re actually looking inside a vehicle, and their actions can be seen by the instructor on a screen.

“It’s a matter of seconds to make their decisions. They can be shot,” Davis said, adding that even though the students know it’s not real life, they are “so tense” while waiting to conduct one of the scenarios.

“When they take that mask off, it’s, ‘Whew!’ I tell them, ‘It’s OK to be afraid; you’re either going to panic or revert to your training, and the more you train, the better you get,'” he said.

Everything the students do can be recorded and replayed so they can discuss their actions and reactions with Davis.

“This is a game changer for both current and future law enforcement,” Davis said. “Everyone is quick to make judgments on officers now.”

His students already do ride-alongs with local police officers and have been working alongside Herman Potts, St. Clair Police Department administrative assistant, learning about the record-keeping aspect of police work. Davis said he believes having this equipment will lead to his students doing more one-on-one work with police departments.

Each student’s record of what he or she has accomplished on the machine can also be maintained and provided to other departments, if needed, for references.

The equipment is mobile and can be taken to other departments for their officers to try out. This past week, Potts and Chase Askounes, a St. Clair patrolman, were in Davis’ classroom observing its use.

“The fact that this is here is awesome,” said Askounes, who has used one of the units in Columbus.

Senior Xavier Baumgarner said he hopes to someday be on a SWAT team and that the training equipment “provides a pretty solid baseline” with a “fast-paced” program.

Andrew Reed, who plans to join the Ohio State Highway Patrol after graduation, was asked if interacting with the virtual reality scenarios made law enforcement seem more dangerous. He said it didn’t, and that it didn’t make him change his mind about his career choice.

Instead of pursuing a career in law enforcement, senior Keira Martin said she wants to go into forensics and that the virtual reality program “shows how it is.”

Seniors Aliyah Pack and Chloe Galeoti are also considering careers in forensics. Pack said the virtual reality training helps in making split second-decisions and not second-guessing yourself.

Galeoti said the unit has “given me the ability to learn different things and opens a world of opportunities.”

“This is the best thing I ever learned,” Galeoti said. “It changed my whole outlook on police and made me more empathetic.”

Davis said he has additional equipment that aids in teaching his students, including a 911 simulator that helps them earn national certification as a 911 dispatcher; a laser shot simulator; and a sectioned-off portion of the classroom where he can set up a crime scene, complete with blood spatter, hair, fibers, fingerprints and supplies for evidence packaging.

Davis also has various speakers provide demonstrations to the class, and next week the city fire department will visit the classroom to do workplace training with the students. 

When students complete the criminal justice course, they have a 911 certification, Stop the Bleed certification, first aid/CPR training, OSHAA training and multiple other certifications.

Pictured at top: Chris Davis, center, instructor of the criminal justice class at East Liverpool High School, explains the new virtual reality system to Herman Potts, left, St. Clair Township Police Department administrative assistant, and St. Clair patrolman Chase Askounes.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.