YORK COUNTY, Va. — Inside the brand new York-Poquoson Sheriff's Office, there's a room that's already paying off its $180,000 price tag. It's a virtual reality training room for deputies.
“We can recreate schools, neighborhood, businesses, homes on the screen," said Sheriff Ron Montgomery. "There’s hundreds and hundreds of scenarios that we can run.”
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The sheriff said it can be a very tailored experience, and anything that's on a deputy's belt can be used in the simulation - like their hand gun, tasers, pepper spray and rifles.
“It gives us the ability to train the deputies on de-escalation, shoot don’t shoot, we can talk about their body language and how they present themselves when they go up on traffic stops,” said the sheriff.
Montgomery said they can also use their own body camera footage, put it into the system, and recreate a scenario that has actually happened.
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“You feel the anxiety, you feel the stress of it, so what we are trying to do is teach the deputies on a regular basis how to control their emotions, how to control their senses, how to control their breathing, so they slow everything down," said the sheriff.
This technology comes to the department three months after an incident where a deputy shot a teen who they say pointed a gun at them. The teen survived and is now facing charges.
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While the technology was already in the works before that shooting, Sheriff Montgomery says he hopes putting deputies in situations like that in a virtual setting can better prepare them for a real world scenario.
“We can put them through very stressful situations in here and if they make a mistake then obviously we can correct it before they have to go out onto the street,” said the sheriff.
Members of the public will be able to try some scenarios in the simulation room at the next citizen's academy in September.
