Video has a remarkable ability to enhance law enforcement training and improve officer safety and effectiveness. It’s estimated that the brain can process video much faster than text (up to 60,000 times faster, to be exact!) When it comes to training for law enforcement, video is becoming much more popular because it can show officers real-life scenarios that they are likely to encounter on the job.
If you’re looking for ways to enhance your training methods for police, sheriff, SWAT, and city police departments, it may be time to look into video training. While traditional training methods will always have their place, video training can help add another dimension of realism to your current methods. When combined with other training methods, video training may be the missing link you need to take your training program to the next level.
Benefits of Video in Law Enforcement Training
Video helps with memory retention when compared to text, infographics and other written forms of training. If you’ve been looking for ways to help your law enforcement officers retain the training they receive more effectively, video training may be the answer.
When law enforcement officers can see the techniques and strategies they’re being taught to use in action, they’re more likely to recall them when necessary. Showing someone how to de-escalate a tense situation is often more effective than simply telling someone how to de-escalate.
Maximize Training With a Limited Budget
Many law enforcement departments are dealing with decreased budgets this year, which can make proper training a challenge. Fortunately, you can make the best use of your budget by investing in video training practices. Training videos can be reused over and over again, which makes them a smart purchase for law enforcement budgets that are stretched thinner than usual.
Though you will need to make an initial investment to buy your law enforcement training videos, the investment will pay for itself many times over. The nice thing about training videos is that they can be viewed at the officers’ discretion or during a shift when there is some downtime. They can also be viewed together under supervision to ensure each law enforcement officer watches them without distractions. For best results, videos should be kept brief (no longer than 15 minutes) so they can easily be viewed on-site or from an officer’s mobile phone.
Apply Training Practices to Real-Life Situations
Video training makes it easy to put themselves in the shoes of the officers on the screen. It’s much easier to simulate real-life situations and how to handle them through video than it is to do the same thing through text.
When you create law enforcement training videos, you can show officers the best ways to respond in both common and unusual situations they might encounter on the job. It’s also a great way to show officers what they should not do in specific types of situations. Watching officers enact different situations on the screen is an effective way to help your law enforcement officers learn the most appropriate ways to respond.
Immerse Law Enforcement in Simulations Mimicking Controversial Police Incidents
Recent controversial police incidents have made life a lot harder for law enforcement personnel. Many officers second-guess everything they do and are constantly worried about becoming the next YouTube star for all the wrong reasons. To help minimize these concerns and give your law enforcement officers the confidence they need to handle controversial situations, use video training for this specific purpose.
You can create videos that re-enact certain controversial police incidents and illustrate how the officers in those situations should have responded. In this way, you can prepare your law enforcement personnel to make better decisions if they ever encounter similar situations in the line of duty.
Help Officers Make Good Decisions in High-Stress Situations
When you use video law enforcement training methods, the sky is the limit when it comes to scenario possibilities. From learning how to respond to an active shooter situation to gaining the de-escalation tools necessary for a domestic abuse call, video training can simulate practically any situation your officers could possibly encounter.
When law enforcement officers see how they should respond to such situations, they develop the skills necessary to handle various circumstances with the appropriate use of force. When they visualize over and over again how they should react to different types of stressors and threats, they will learn how to react instinctively when such situations happen in real life.
As with all forms of training, the key to experiencing the greatest success with your video training program is to focus on repetition. Repeatedly exposing officers to similar situations in your video training is the best way to hone their instinctive reactions so they can respond without hesitation to similar scenarios that happen on the job.
Incorporate Video in Your Law Enforcement Training
MatchPoint Studio is a visual storytelling company. We can bring your law enforcement training videos to life and make them as realistic and effective as possible. We are committed to setting new standards for the industry by using cutting-edge tools and creative techniques to make your videos stand out. When you come to us for your law enforcement video training needs, you can rest assured that you’ll receive content that will not only educate your law enforcement personnel but entertain them as well.
Our videos are currently used by SWAT, police, sheriff, and city police departments. We can tailor our videos to meet the specific training needs of each of these departments. We would love to provide you with an obligation-free estimate based on the size, scope and duration of your project. Whether you want just one training video or a set of multiple training videos, we’ll make sure we meet your expectations.
If you’re ready to learn more about our law enforcement training video options, we’d love to sit down and chat with you. Contact us today to tell us more about your project, and we’ll tell you how we can help take your training methods to the next level.
Sources:
https://www.policechiefmagazine.org/strengthening-the-foundation-new-trends-training/
https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/27/us/virtual-reality-police-training-sacramento/index.html
