Harlan County Sheriff’s Office undergoes training via virtual reality equipment

The Harlan County Sheriff’s Office recently completed training utilizing a new virtual reality system to simulate multiple scenarios deputies may find themselves facing in the course of their law enforcement careers.
Harlan County Sheriff Chris Brewer shed some light on the training during a recent interview.
“It’s a virtual reality simulator that the Kentucky Association of Counties (KACO) rotates across the state,” Brewer said. “It’s not only for deputies – we’ve reached out to every law enforcement agency in the county – basically you wear the VR goggles and run through several scenarios.”
According to Brewer, the virtual scenarios include a range of situations police may find themselves involved with including traffic stops, responding to a school shooting, responding to a domestic violence call and more.
Brewer explained how the training is conducted.
“We have a training officer who operates (the system),” Brewer said. “You (trainees) have to speak and be verbal. You’ll have different tools on your belt – a taser, a gun – anything you would wear on duty. The training officer – depending on how verbal you’re being – can have the virtual person you’re dealing with comply or you might have to shoot, there are several different scenarios you can go through.”
Brewer mentioned the training is an asset for law enforcement personnel.
“It’s something that allows us to experience real situations without having to go through the situations in real life, it prepares us,” Brewer said. “Things can happen at any moment, so it’s another tool we have to help prepare our officers.”
Brewer mentioned the VR system is a new feature KACO offers for such training.
“We’re able to get it about every two years,” Brewer said. “This is actually a brand-new system. It’s very realistic. You wear VR goggles as you go through the training, the old system was just on a big monitor screen.”
Brewer pointed out this is the first time this particular equipment has been available in Harlan County since he became sheriff.
“In order to qualify for it, we had to send a deputy to go through training and become certified to run the program,” Brewer said. “Every deputy has gone through it multiple times; I made it a requirement for our staff to go through it.”

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