VR Can Boost Police Officer Empathy, UMD Study Finds

The job of police officer isn’t one that’s generally associated with touchy-feeliness, but a new University of Maryland study points to a tool that could help cops better connect with those they serve: virtual reality (VR).

Police officers who donned VR headsets to train for engagement with civilians suffering mental health crises reported feeling high levels of empathy, said Jesse Saginor, associate professor in UMD’s School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation and coauthor of the study, published this month in Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health.

“The more immersed they felt, the more they developed an emotional understanding of what the non-player character in crisis was going through,” Saginor said.

Police are often the first contact for people suffering a psychiatric emergency, and studies have shown that a quarter of people with mental illness have an arrest history. Many officers report that they aren’t adequately trained to respond to mental health crises, leading some to use more force than necessary.

By tapping into their emotional intelligence in deeper ways, officers can handle such situations more beneficially for everyone, Saginor said.

An expert in quantitative methodologies, Saginor began collaborating on this study with lead author Florida Atlantic University criminologist Lisa M. Dario, an expert on police technology and community policing, while he worked there. For the experiment, the pair recruited 40 Florida officers, about half of whom had no experience with VR. After donning headsets, participants confronted a virtual civilian showing signs of schizophrenic psychosis, portrayed in a video by a virtual actor. After the simulation, officers completed surveys measuring immersion and empathy levels, among other things.

One of the more surprising findings was that officers who showed initial confusion about the virtual environment—mainly due to a lack of familiarity with the technology—were more likely to exhibit empathy toward the character in mental crisis.

“When respondents feel unsettled, they might focus more on understanding the characters, potentially as a coping mechanism to make sense of the virtual experience,” the authors wrote.

Saginor called the takeaway “one of the fascinating findings in terms of how officers experienced the environment. They’re trying to understand exactly what’s happening, what the character is feeling and what course of action they should take. They were highly immersed.”

Previous research has shown the benefits of VR training for law enforcement officers, but the UMD-Florida Atlantic University study is the first to gauge officers’ opinions and emotional reactions to it, Saginor said.

“Perspective-taking fosters empathy,” Dario said. “VR training enables officers to experience situations from the citizen’s viewpoint. When police respond to psychiatric and behavioral health crises, they often encounter chaotic environments with limited information. By recreating these unpredictable interactions, officers can practice strategic responses in ways that weren’t previously possible.”

The study raises questions about whether virtual experiences elicit compassion more effectively than traditional live-action training. Notably, VR simulations present officers with one-on-one scenarios, whereas live-action sessions typically involve groups of officers, which might limit empathic reactions, Saginor said.

The experiment reinforces the finding that VR can be a crucial training tool for law enforcement, provided that police officers find it realistic.

“As technology gets better, VR might further maximize immersion and sense of involvement, which could strengthen empathy and improve police-community interactions,” Saginor said.