Online seminar: Virtual Reality and Immersive video in policing

This session will explore the use of virtual environments to enhance police learning and training including courtroom practice and safeguarding children in domestic violence contexts.

Enhancing police training in child protection: An evaluation of the role of immersive video in building confidence and understanding: Dr Oli Howson, Lynne Roberts and Dr Helen Glasspoole-Bird

CPRL were tasked by Cheshire Police to evaluate their use of immersive video in a training context. Participants used head mounted displays (commonly thought of as VR Headsets) to view immersive video putting them in the place of the victim in child protection incidents. Oli Howson (C&C) and Helen Glasspoole-Bird (CPRL) conducted a survey of participants and followed this up with three small focus groups, finding the approach largely positive, with most participants finding it had a long-term impact on their recall of the experiences, and Cheshire Police receiving a much improved PEEL assessment in protecting vulnerable people. Of particular interest was the experiences related by neurodiverse participants.

The Open Justice Centre virtual reality courtroom: Dr Ahmed Kadry and Simon Hull

The Open University have designed and built a highly realistic immersive virtual court room (VCR) where users can explore and learn about the court system. In addition, the courtroom allows users to come together in the VCR to engage in mock hearings to support the practice and development of courtroom presentation and advocacy skills. 

The presentation will highlight some findings from a research project that brought together students from law, policing, and social work to engage in a series of simulated court hearings in the VCR. The aim of the study was to explore the benefits of the VCR for law, policing and social work students in collaborating in simulated court hearings, developing court room presentation skills and the potential of the VCR to enhance the learning of distance education students. The VCR itself will also be shown.