Two of our researchers from the Human Movement Sciences department, Vana Hutter and Lisanne Kleygrewe, have been working (along with others) on the project SHOTPROS: Using Virtual Reality (VR) to train the decision-making behavior of police officers in stressful situations. The project started in 2019 with an EU Horizon 2020 grant of €5.1 million. The aim of the project was to develop VR training that helps officers to perceive, decide and act appropriately in unpredictable and dangerous situations. Vana and Lisanne have been collaborating with several universities and police agencies across Europe and the Dutch company RE-LiON provided the VR resources and technical expertise.

Their research focused on the influence of stress on decision-making and acting, as well as personal, contextual, organizational, and social factors that can cause or exacerbate stress. With this, they mapped training activities during VR training. They conducted qualitative and quantitative research on the perception of stress and the experience of perceiving and moving in the virtual training environment.

During focus groups with police officers and police instructors, Lisanne and Vana received positive feedback from participants who found the VR training experience enjoyable, realistic, and helpful in preparing for real-life incidents.

The SHOTPROS project was successful in developing a VR training solution for police officers as well as constructing a VR training framework — we invite you to check out their research here to learn more about their findings. In addition, the project’s aim was to develop a marketable VR training product. To make the results of the studies usable in practice, the findings were translated into factsheets together with instructional videos. Visit the SHOTPROS to see how they managed to do this.