Opening a dialog about mental health, knowing how to identify and provide assistance in cases of suicide attempts or crisis episodes resulting from psychological disorders during police interventions are essential skills for public safety agents – often the first to respond to a call for help.
Safer outcomes for everyone come with better training options. Axon, a global leader in public safety technology, has developed Community Engagement Training as part of its virtual reality (VR) training program for public safety agencies. Aimed at improving skills, perspective, empathy and de-escalation tactics, the training involves the use of VR headsets that present simulated scenarios in which police officers can interact with community members, victims in crisis and people going through a mental health episode.
The virtual reality scenes were created in collaboration with mental health experts, researchers and security professionals to ensure the highest degree of realism in the simulations. The Community Engagement Training modules present scenarios from two different perspectives: one from the point of view of the police officer responding to the incident and the other from the perspective of the person suffering from an acute mental health episode. These modules address interactions with people experiencing a mental health crisis, with Alzheimer’s or on the autistic spectrum, with the aim of expanding officers’ skills and preparing them to deal with complex situations in the real world.
“The Community Engagement Training (CET) modules can simulate for the user what it’s like to go through a trauma or face a mental health crisis. The idea is to teach empathy and give public agents a sense of what people might be facing,” says Arthur Bernardes, Axon’s national director in Brazil.
Considering the intense routine, time constraints and restricted budgets for external training that public agents face, VR technology becomes an ally for police departments to train anywhere and at any time.
According to the most recent mapping on depression carried out by the World Health Organization (WHO), 5.8% of the Brazilian population suffers from depression, which is equivalent to 11.7 million Brazilians. On a continental level, Brazil is just behind the United States, where 5.9% of the population suffers from depression, according to WHO data.
The suicide rate among young people in Brazil increased by 6% per year between 2011 and 2022. Reports of self-harm in the 10-24 age group increased by 29% annually during the same period. These findings come from an analysis of almost 1 million pieces of data, published in a recent study in The Lancet Regional Health – Americas, developed by the Center for the Integration of Data and Knowledge for Health (Cidacs/Fiocruz Bahia) in collaboration with Harvard researchers.
Police officers also need attention
Data from the 2024 Brazilian Public Security Yearbook indicates an alarming trend for the country’s public security. For the first time since the Brazilian Public Security Forum began tracking the victimization of police officers, suicide was the leading cause of death recorded in 2023, surpassing the number of deaths resulting from confrontations, both on duty and while off duty. The suicide rate among active-duty civil and military police increased by 26.2% compared to the previous year, and had an incidence eight times higher among police officers than among the rest of the population.
The use of technological solutions tends to help reduce stress and provide more support for carrying out everyday tasks. By using a body camera, for example, police officers know that they can count on effective support from command in critical situations, such as confrontations. This is because the images recorded at the scene can be monitored by the central office – which will be better able to guide officers on how to proceed.
What’s more, by recording interactions with the public, police officers can be sure that they won’t be subject to narrative disputes of any kind. Should they be accused of wrongdoing, their word will be backed up by evidence that will give them the confidence to carry out their duties with peace of mind.
In confrontational situations, where police officers need to prevent an aggressor from acting, or where they need to immobilize an individual who is behaving in a threatening manner, they need to act quickly and use the resources available to them. However, without preparation or alternatives, it is common for police officers to have to resort to firing firearms that often have irreversible impacts – and the weight of these decisions on the psyche of security officers can be too great.
By offering police officers less lethal technology solutions, such as TASER devices, agencies give them the security of being able to act in defense of the population without the burden of dealing with permanent consequences. And so police officers and the public feel more confident and secure.
With a focus on the mental well-being of public safety officers, Axon held a chat in 2024 with officers from Australia, the UK, France and Italy to find out what the most challenging moments of their careers had been. The officers listed their top seven stress management strategies for dealing with risky situations.
- Physical activities: the types of exercise varied between running, weight training, HIIT training, hiking or martial arts.
- Hobbies (other than work): painting, gardening or reading.
- Spending time with friends and family: relaxing with loved ones acts as an antidote to work-related stress.
- Relaxation techniques: practicing yoga, meditation and breathing exercises.
- Entertainment: listening to music, podcasts, watching TV, playing video games.
- Peer support network: communicating with co-workers, supervisors, sharing experiences. Police officers often turn to their peers for support.
- Prioritization and problem-solving: dividing up tasks and prioritizing helps reduce overload.