Concord Police Utilize Apex Officer Virtual Reality Simulator for De-Escalation Training

With the Apex Officer virtual reality training simulator, Concord police officers can train for de-escalation, use of force, and crisis intervention scenarios in an immersive virtual environment.

Apex Officer, an international provider of virtual reality training simulators for the law enforcement, military, first responder, commercial and educational markets, announced that California’s Concord Police Department has installed Apex Officer’s virtual reality training simulator.

Concord is the largest city in Contra Costa County, California and 8th largest city in the San Francisco Bay Area. Concord Police Department serves a population of over 122,067 residents. This represents the second significant sale of virtual reality training simulators by California law enforcement agencies and sets the stage for a revolution in active shooter and use of force training, using the total immersion of virtual reality technology for de-escalation training.

With the national focus on the use of force and police training, the Concord Police Department saw an opportunity to better prepare its officers with training equipment designed to improve decision making in high-pressure and extreme stress situations. After significant research on the various options, the Concord Police Department chose to include the Apex Officer virtual reality judgmental use of force and de-escalation training simulator as a major component of its training program.

“As the variety and type of threats to law enforcement and citizens alike continue to grow, many law enforcement agencies are looking towards innovative VR technology to better train their police officers in a safe and cost-effective manner,” said Chase Dittmer, chairman, and CEO of Apex Officer. “Unlike other training simulators currently being used by law enforcement agencies, Apex Officer is the first to provide a truly immersive, fully integrated, and realistic virtual reality experience.”

The Apex Officer team has spent years working with their early law enforcement customers and partners to ensure their training content is superior in quality, realism, immersion, and relevance. Apex Officer also employs a number of subject matter experts that helped guide the development of their police and law enforcement training system and scenarios.

Each training scenario in the Apex Officer content library is based on real-life incidents and is professionally produced with content that is carefully vetted by subject matter experts to rigorously test a trainee’s critical thinking skills, de-escalation skills, and psychological responses to the stresses of life-like situations.

“As a company, we are proud of the seeds we are planting across our country,” said Chase Dittmer. “We are honored to work with the brave men and women of the Concord Police Department. We are grateful for this opportunity.”

The Apex Officer VR training system is capable of simulating an infinite number of different police training scenarios that can convey body language and other non-verbal threat cues that are a crucial part of progressive de-escalation training. The Apex Officer training simulator utilizes state of the art virtual reality technology and offers an immersive 360-degree field of view and includes peripheral vision and training tools that closely match those used in the field to enhance the transferability of the training to real-life scenarios.

“Our main focus is on safety. We want everyone to come home to their families safely. I grew up in a law enforcement family and as a child, I was always scared that they weren’t going to make it home,” said Chase Dittmer. “If you take out your firearm and you pull that trigger, you can’t take that bullet back. There isn’t a restart button in real life. However, if you pull out your firearm and you’re able to talk them down and de-escalate the situation, you can always put your firearm away. We want the suspects, the victims, and our law enforcement officers to make it home safely. Apex Officer training provides that preparation.”

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About Apex Officer

Apex Officer is an international provider of virtual reality training simulators for the law enforcement, Defense, first responders, and educational markets. The company’s proprietary technologies, software, and scenarios provide intense virtual reality training for de-escalation, judgmental use of force, marksmanship, crisis intervention and related training that mimics real-world situations. Apex Officer’s mission is to use 21st-century technology to solve longstanding problems in policing and public safety. Learn more about Apex Officer at https://www.apexofficer.com.

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