Chicago Police Department, Axon Partner for First VR Empathy Training Program

CHICAGO -- The Chicago Police Department on Wednesday announced a partnership with Axon to pilot the company's virtual reality empathy-based training.

The VR training program, offered through Axon Academy, is designed to better equip officers with the tools to de-escalate situations involving people suffering from mental health issues, crises or psychotic episodes.

Axon launched its empathy-based training program following a survey of 500 US law enforcement professionals, which found that 80 percent of officers believe there is a need for improved agency tools and resources to effectively de-escalate dangerous situations.

"It's humbling to work with the second largest police department in the country to pilot this VR training program," Laura Brown, Axon's Sr. Director of Training, said in a statement. "There's no one-size-fits-all strategy for responding to calls for service in the field. The more police officers understand what people are experiencing during a crisis, the more they can adapt their response to effectively de-escalate the situation and protect lives."

The Chicago Police Department becomes the first agency to incorporate Axon's program into its current crisis intervention training curriculum. It also is the first agency to debut Axon's new autism empathy training VR scenario. The announced of the partnership comes during Mental Health Awareness Month.

"This training stands to have a wide impact on the work that CPD does every day. In fact, I think using these headsets for CIT training could be just a start," Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said at a news conference Wednesday morning. "I really envision additional scenarios that could be built to train officers on the appropriate use of force, procedural justice and more."

Johnson highlighted the accessibility of the training for officers.

"The beauty of this platform is that it is not restricted to a classroom at the academy. A group of headsets could be easily packed up and taken to any district or unit throughout the city. Then officers could participate in this training without ever having to leave the particular stations they work in," he said. "Officers could complete their virtual reality training, discuss the scenario and be back out on the street in a short amount of time."

The VR technology provides officers with an immersive training where trainees can put themselves in the shoes of both the officer responding to the scene and the person in crisis. For the pilot program, Axon will work closely with the Chicago Police Department to incorporate the VR training piece into their existing curriculum.

"The goal is to take crisis intervention training out of the classroom, and into a virtual field," Chicago Police Lieutenant Antoinette Ursitti, a Crisis Intervention Team program coordinator, said in a statement. "We're excited to see how this new partnership with Axon can help our department not only understand civilians in crisis, but equip them to de-escalate situations verbally."

The VR training is available now to customers who purchase Axon's Officer Safety Plan 7+. They will receive an Oculus Go training headset loaded with both the autism and schizophrenia empathy training.