On 5/10/23, the Mount Pleasant City Council approved the purchase of a virtual reality training system for the Mt Pleasant PD. This will be one of the first V/R training programs in the State of Iowa. It was funded by American Rescue Funds and donations to the department.
The program will have numerous realistic situations that will give officers the ability to better prepare for high pressure situations. It will be a safer training as it does not involve real weapons or physical contact.
It will have the standard shoot/no shoot simulations on it, but more importantly, will feature dangerous situations where communication skills are utilized.
De-Escalation training begins with effective communication skills. In today’s society we are seeing a change in people being able to communicate effectively so this will be vital to our future.
The Mt Pleasant PD will be able to host trainings which will enhance other law enforcement agencies to hopefully, make everyone better. This training can be done in a much shorter time constraint than “normal scenario based” training. This will cut down on costs and equipment.
The Mt Pleasant PD would like to thank the City Council, Wal Mart Store, Wal Mart Distribution, BNSF, Street Smarts Virtual Reality, and the private donors who asked not to be named.