Local 12 WKRC: UC teams up with Google on VR police training
UC’s Robin Engel leads partnership with Google to test and evaluate virtual reality police training
The University of Cincinnati is one of four universities and private companies selected to evaluate new virtual reality software designed to de-escalate police interactions and prevent injury to officers, citizens and bystanders.
Robin Engel is director of UC’s Center of Police Research and Policy, which will be evaluating the new tool. It has been in development for four years, but Engel says it is timely now given the ongoing national conversation around policing following last year’s protests over the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the shooting death of Breonna Taylor by Louisville police.
“We can then test it on real officers in a variety of different departments,” Engel said. “So we will be able to test a lot of different aspects of de-escalation training.”
Watch the WKRC interview and coverage by WVXU.
Featured image at top of police lights: Rodgerson/Unsplash.
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