371 Productions, a film company in Milwaukee, is developing a virtual reality film that can be used by law enforcement for empathy training and building better relationships with the communities they serve.
The company is building a prototype in partnership with the Chicago Police Department; Anton Seals of Grow Greater Englewood; Dr. Nakia Gordon, an associate professor specializing in behavioral and affective neuroscience at Marquette University; Robin Robinson, the former director of community affairs for the CPD; Milwaukee's Foresight Studios; Los Angeles-based Light Sail VR; and several community members, said Brad Lichtenstein, founder, producer and director at 371 Productions.
371 productions previously created a virtual reality film on tennis legend Arthur Ashe, which was selected for the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. Lichtenstein's first virtual reality film, "Across the Line," was selected for a screening at Sundance in 2016. That film, a collaboration with Planned Parenthood, takes viewers through an experience of crossing protesters' picket lines to access abortion clinics.
The new interactive VR film project, called Project Perspective, is designed to evoke empathy through 360-degree perspective-taking and allows participants to choose from the various perspectives of law enforcement and people in the community. The technology being developed includes pause and start functions on the controllers and, potentially in the VR headset, systems to monitor vital signs like breathing and body temperature so those undergoing training can learn how to regulate their behavior in high-stress situations.
The scenario in the VR prototype involves a suicide scene, with one officer arriving to a home after a man has threatened to kill himself with a gun inside an apartment with other family members present. The officer in the video has his gun drawn when two more officers, who are familiar with the man threatening to kill himself, arrive on scene and deescalate the situation.
"During the entire experience, you have the ability to step into someone else's shoes by changing perspectives," Lichtenstein said.
In the VR experience, people can choose the perspective of the man threatening suicide, the man's wife, who is standing nearby with her children, or the doorway of the apartment where a crowd has gathered. When the scene ends, users can listen to each character talk from an interview-like point of view.
The scene was created based on real-life experiences of people who participated in a two-day summit with 371 Productions and their partners, Lichtenstein said.
371 Productions and its partners conducted research on dozens of officers and community members who went through the VR experience and were able to measure increased empathy and decreased implicit bias, particularly bias against Black people. It also determined the worse police were at regulating their emotions, the lower empathy they had for the community member.
The plan is to develop more scenarios, including law enforcement handling of traffic stops, crowds, or even encountering people in stairways.
"The whole goal is to use this to help condition people to have more productive, one on one dialogue," Lichtenstein said.
