Law Enforcement Training Simulation LETS

In 2015, The Washington Post began to log every fatal shooting by an on-duty police officer in the United States. Since that time there have been more than 5,000 such shootings recorded by The Post. After Michael Brown, an unarmed Black man, was killed in 2014 by police in Ferguson, Mo., a Post investigation found that the FBI under counted fatal police shootings by more than half. This is because reporting by police departments is voluntary and many departments fail to report (Fatal Force 2021 Tate, Jenkins and Rich).

Could some of these fatal shootings been prevented before it escalated to use of deadly force? Law enforcement officers encounter many unexpected events/ circumstances in the line of duty. It’s impossible for police officers to predict what they will encounter in their day to day line of work. The outcome of these situations could be fatal especially if an officer is experiencing it for their first time. Law Enforcement Training Simulation (LETS) prepares officers for these real-world challenges by providing experiential training through a virtual training simulation that allow officers to gain the vital experience in a safe environment, without putting either officers or civilians at risk.

The need for a better way to improve police officer training has been raised by politicians, community leaders and the public. Activists demand more transparency, better training and improved de-escalation skills. Our solution called Law Enforcement Training Simulation (LETS) prepares officers for these real-world challenges by providing experiential training through a virtual training simulation that allow officers to gain the vital experience in a safe environment, without putting either officers or civilians at risk.

LETS provides a variety of scenarios that allow officers to be exposed to dangerous situations preparing officers for the complexities of policing today and in the future.  It focuses on developing each officer’s learning capacity, leadership abilities, and problem-solving skills. 

The LETS solution aims to advise/train police officers to first rely on their cognitive skills, communication skills and tactical skills to deescalate situations and to use physical force only as the last result to deescalate situations.

Prototype stage was selected because we are currently developing/ building out the law enforcement training simulation to enable us to test our concepts with local police departments to gain their insight and feedback before finalizing our product.