Police educators in Northumbria are testing whether virtual reality headsets and augmented reality tools can replace their current teaching methods—largely still reliant on lectures and paper-based materials. The problem is straightforward: sectors like medicine and nursing already use immersive XR resources for training, but police education has barely adopted them. This project brings together XR media specialists from the University of Sunderland with Northumbria Police to find out what police educators actually need and which technologies—VR, AR, or motion capture—work best for teaching scenarios such as conflict de-escalation or evidence handling. If successful, the research could shift police training from traditional classrooms to immersive, digitally driven environments. That matters because better-prepared officers affect public safety directly. But the impact also runs through systems most people never see: how police forces update their training curricula, how local training departments budget for technology, and how further and higher education providers design courses for law enforcement. This is exploratory, not a deployment. The team will run focus groups and technology tests to assess needs and feasibility. If the findings justify it, they will seek further funding to build a proof-of-concept system. No officers will train in VR next month—but the groundwork for that future is being laid now.
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Context: As Extended Reality (XR) media specialists (Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Motion Capture)) we aim to respond to the need for resource development in the delivery of police education by exploring methods to create immersive teaching resources that support police education through the combination of police content with XR media. Currently the police education sector is minimally using (if at all) immersive resources to support teaching. Therefore, by developing XR teaching resources to support police education, we aim to change approaches and offer a long-term impact on the methods used to teach police education. Through an already established collaborative partnership between the University of Sunderland’s Faculty of Arts and Creative Industries and Northumbria Police, we seek to expand our pool of specialists in police education and undertake fundamental research activity (focus groups, technology testing) between the XR media specialists (as researchers) and police and partners (as stakeholders). The research aims to explore the police sector’s need for more developed XR resources to be tailored to police education delivery. This synergistically impacts the development of teaching methodologies currently used to teach police education in the digital age, moving away from traditional teaching resources to an immersive, digitally driven classroom. Challenges: XR is already playing an increasingly important role in how technology is reshaping the world of education and evidence suggests many subject areas (health and wellbeing, psychology, nursing, medicine) are benefitting from the integration of technology within teaching practice, however police education is still crying out for XR resources to support a virtual, immersive classroom. The accelerating pace of digital transformation makes it necessary for police educators to more thoroughly benefit from XR teaching resources, and XR specialists are well placed to be at the forefront of this research by creating relevant, effective and safe teaching solutions for police education in the digital age. Aims and Objectives: We aim to explore whether XR specialists can create immersive teaching resources that support and improve police training methodologies. Our objectives and potential applications include: Establishing focus groups between XR media specialists and police experts to undertake a needs assessment for police education. The focus group will lead on new ideas around what teaching content is needed. Content shaping with iterative feedback and proposal evaluations will be of integral importance. Undertaking XR testing alongside chosen police teaching content to ascertain the most effective technology to respond to content demands. Exploring where research findings can be disseminated and investigate other streams of funding to take the research to proof of concept and ensure our outputs lead to tangible uses for our stakeholders. Benefactors include XR media specialists, law enforcement agencies, local police training departments, police educators, police partners, FE and HEI providers. Through ongoing adaptations to methods and content there is feasibility to impact at a national and international scale.
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