Traditional law enforcement training methods are no longer enough. It takes constant training for law enforcement officers to perform at their best. But traditional training methods are costly and completed sparingly throughout the year. How do we solve this problem?

Axon believes there is an opportunity to provide accessible supplemental training that enables public safety professionals to develop into higher-performing officers. Axon VR represents the future of public safety training: immersive de-escalation training that will ultimately make both communities and public safety safer.

Virtual Reality Training

Axon VR Training brings innovative, wireless training to public safety that is easy to set up, scale and deploy anytime, anywhere. Axon VR Training prepares officers for complex, real-world situations through immersive scenarios that encourage critical thinking and de-escalation and enhance officer performance.

Axon VR features three core components: Community Engagement Training, Simulator Training and supplemental e-learning courses hosted within Axon Academy.

• Community Engagement Training focuses on developing skills, empathy and de-escalation tactics that allow officers to respond to complex real-world situations with new insight, awareness and perspectives.
• Simulator Training enables officers to sharpen their skills on the firing range and practice de-escalation techniques in dynamic and realistic scenarios that require real-time assessment, split-second decision-making and use of TASER energy weapons and training firearms should a situation demand.
• Axon Academy houses a library of supplemental e-learning content to strengthen skills taught in VR. After-action reports stored on Academy provide trainers with performance and progress metrics and new insight for coaching and program development.

Virtual Reality Games

Virtual Reality-based gaming is not a new concept to training. Have you ever seen driving, flight or golf simulators? The concept behind gamified simulators is simple: by immersing people in a world where they can interact with equipment and complete tasks in an engaging and life-like way, they will be more capable of applying their knowledge and skills in the real world. Axon took this concept and developed TASER vs Zombies (TvZ), a VR game that uses VR controllers in a fun environment (a zombie apocalypse) to demonstrate the basic mechanics of TASER 7 energy weapons.

TvZ is designed to introduce participants to broad concepts like probe spread and the importance of time and distance in accurately deploying your TASER energy weapon under stress.

Our second gamified VR experience, The Train, showcases the benefits of the Axon Ecosystem. It demonstrates how Axon solutions work together to ensure law enforcement personnel can get their jobs done effectively, efficiently, and, most importantly, safely.

TvZ and The Train are games, and although not part of our current VR training offering, each includes educational components that help users better understand our technology and how it can help them in their work.

Think about training wheels on a bike. Training wheels allow you to get comfortable with a bike’s look, feel and controls; however, they in and of themselves will not get you to the Tour de France. VR games are the same. They allow users to become comfortable with VR technology so that when they utilize true VR training, they are getting the most out of that experience.

Public safety in the 21st century is complex. Officers face new challenges and encounters in the field every day. By continuing to innovate training technology, we can ensure that officers are set up for success in the field. We have the opportunity to nurture a generation of higher-performing officers. VR is the first step.

For more information on Axon VR, visit https://www.axon.com/training/vr

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