SAN ANTONIO — Virtual training is taking place at the San Antonio Police Training Academy to get cadets ready for the real world.
Cadets go through three to four weeks of training that involves a host of different ways to be trained, one of them being virtual reality.
The virtual reality training sessions consist of different scenarios where cadets have to think on the spot of how to react when faced with a problem.
The goal is to get the cadets ready for the field. Everyday officers have to make split-second decisions that take a trained officer to follow through on.
"We have to kind of stress to them, 'hey there's going to be a time where you're going to have to make that decision with very little information and you're going to have to justify it,'" SAPD Sergeant Edward Pedarza said.
The only way to help training officers get used to making split-second decisions in a thought out way is to get them in this virtual reality training.
The outcomes of their scenarios are based on how they react and the decisions they make.
KENS 5 had the chance to try out the simulator and found out that having to make those decisions is much harder than it looks.
Being in situations where people are illegally dumping or handling a disgruntled former employee that has a gun is what we were met with.
Within moments, both scenarios became overwhelming and unfamiliar. There was little time to think and even react.
"You understand now it's going to be scrutinized by everyone…the news…your friends…the police department," Pedarza added.