North Wales Police officers use virtual reality training into control and coercion

North Wales Police officers are using virtual reality equipment to help improve their understanding of what victims of control and coercion experience.

The aim is for officers to better recognise signs and expand their knowledge of the domestic crime through a different perspective to better protect victims and pursue offenders.

It is the first-time virtual reality training of its kind has been delivered to officers in North Wales.

It has been developed by Mother Mountain Productions - a community interest organisation with the mission of giving vulnerable people a voice – and is being delivered at Bangor University.

The training sessions work by transporting officers directly in the shoes of victims of coercive control as they don virtual reality headsets.

They experience a number of scenarios based on real-life accounts that are played out by actors, with the officer being trained seeing it from the perspective of the victim.

Each session illustrates more subtle signs of coercive control, including love bombing, gaslighting and stonewalling.

Students temporarily visit a VR reality where perpetrators take control of finances, mobile phones and medications, dictating what their victims wear and who they see or what they do from day to day.

North Wales Police Chief Constable Amanda Blakeman and Wales lead for violence against woman and girls said: “Coercive control can be subtle, making it difficult to identify and to recognise as abuse.

“Those experiencing it are often left feeling belittled and isolated. Limiting a person’s access to money, dictating what they can wear or making them cut contact with their friends and family are all examples of coercive control.

“This innovative new way of training gives our officers a new perspective and understanding on the domestic crime, allowing us to offer a victim focussed and improved level of service to the public.

“We are committed to proactively identifying violence against women, and investing in our officers to ensure they are equipped with the skills they need to deal with incidents with confidence and understanding.”

Inspector Claire McGrady and Violence Against Women and Girls Tactical Delivery Manager for North Wales Police, said: “What’s very exciting about this virtual reality training is that it allows our trainee officers to learn more about controlling, coercive behaviour and take that back to the workplace and use it when faced with similar cases.

“The statistics for this type of emotional abuse in England and Wales is in the many tens of thousands, so this is a very real crime we need to understand and try to prevent every day.

 

“This training makes a great contribution towards that.”

Jude Traharne, Managing Director of Mother Mountain Productions, said: “When we put people in the position of another, it engenders a greater understanding of what is happening to that person.

“By putting police officers in the shoes of victims, they will experience first-hand what it is like for them.

“We work with agencies and victim-survivors to ensure we are telling their story in the most authentic way possible, and to really make their voices heard, albeit anonymously.

“We also feel it’s very important for the integrity of the company to give them a voice so their experiences can be shared as very often, they feel public sector agencies, although they’re very sympathetic, don’t always understand what years of coercive control can do to someone.”

 

Jude explained VR has a different impact to conventional filming as it works on the brain’s limbic system.

She added: “Everything is very felt and visceral and we have found through feedback, it does really impact on participants’ behaviour change, which is very exciting.” 

Dr Tim Holmes, subject lead for Criminology and Policing at Bangor University said: “This immersive teaching approach demonstrates our commitment to responding to the need to improve new police officers’ awareness of coercive control, and how it can present itself in different forms.

“Through the degree, we have an opportunity to reach a lot of new police officers as well as criminology students and the wider social services sector with this training.” 

If you or anybody you know is suffering from coercive or controlling behaviour, please contact us online or by calling 101, and arrange to talk in confidence to experienced investigators.