Society is constantly changing, as the pace of social and technological developments has increased enormously in recent years. Police officers are at the center of this changing society that is placing ever greater demands on their profession. Police training is evolving in line with these developments. And it is not only society that is undergoing enormous changes. Today’s students cannot be compared to those of the past: they have a different view on work and learning. The traditional method of police training, based on one equal set of student’s needs, is no longer appropriate.

As a result, Dutch Police Academy felt the need to diversify its training offerings. At the same time, their capacity (manpower and space) is insufficient to educate 17.000 students in the coming 5-7 years using traditional methods.

Students require access to educational tools that match the way they learn most efficiently plus it needs to match training facilities. The Dutch Police Academy needs to provide these tools in order to ensure that they remain attractive and relevant. These tools also play an important role in personal development, something that goes well beyond preparing students for today’s challenges.

Law enforcement agencies (LEA) are tasked with many routine tasks that do not necessarily involve violence. However, there are situations that can quickly escalate, resulting in high-risk incidents with armed perpetrators. In order to respond to these incidents effectively, LEA’s need to be prepared and have the necessary training to cope with a wide array of situations.

The consequences of not being prepared can be dire, as wrong decisions can lead to fatal consequences, depression, or PTSD. To avoid such outcomes, real-life scenario-based training (SBT) is essential. This involves simulating incidents by replicating situations, using role play with actors, props such as loud music, suitable locations, and gear like FX to replicate the operational weapon with non-lethal ammunition.

Room clearing – also named close quarter battle (CQB) or close quarter combat (CQC) – is one of the hardest indoor tasks when operating in urban environments. Spaces are confined, movement is very restricted and people you run into are friendly or hostile and you need to decide in a fraction of a second.

To prepare for these missions, the Dutch Military is training their units in mockup environments shooting with FX, UTM, Airsoft or live ammunition, throwing flash bangs and breaching doors using explosives.

Force-on-force role play is limited and requires thick protective clothing (FX/UTM/Airsoft). Training with live ammunition is after all not possible. Thick protective clothing reduces the possibility to read peoples’ body language and thus their intent. The ‘look’ of role play is also a given as they are often your team mates that cannot suddenly change their physical appearance while training with elderly, young kids, etc is not allowed. When role play is impossible, static pictures are often used to depict hostile forces.

Another challenge is occupational disease: blast in confined spaces leads to traumatic brain injury (TBI) not to mention getting hit by projectiles from ammunition and other explosives. In the US alone, 450.000 service members were diagnosed with TBI in the period between 2000 and 2021. The total number of active service members is 1.4 million. This is relevant as our workforce is limited and training operators into highly skilled operators is a massive investment.

In room clearing, the opposing force decides how the situation plays out. When the opposing force as well as the surroundings are static and limited, one can doubt the practicality of what so called ‘realistic training’. In reality, you are only stimulating the ‘act’ stage (physical/technical skills) instead of the full OODA loop.