It's a great question. I think in the future we're going to look at a bunch of different tools. They're doing the simulations at Depot and at a couple of other places. Depot certainly leads the country in that area, especially the firearms training around skills acquisition.
There are many things you can do around knowledge transfer, before people ever get into a simulator, to make them understand the IMIM model—the use-of-force model—and the theory behind it before they actually exercise it.
We're also starting out using some gaming technology in some of our online courses so that you can get into an immersive simulation in the midst of a course. You can do the knowledge transfer, do some of the theory piece, and then let people practice in an online scenario. It's no different from playing a Grand Theft Auto on Play Station 2—that kind of thing.
As I said, it's still early days for us, but five years ago we wouldn't use video in a course, whereas now video is in all our courses. We know that we have to evolve; technology isn't standing still.
Think of those young cadets at Depot and if you could give them access to some sandbox they could play in before they actually got into the full-fledged scenario. It's a very expensive piece of infrastructure they have at Depot, and that's why people aren't replicating it across the country yet.
I think what we'll see is a continuum of classroom training—you're always going to need the face-to-face stuff—immersive simulation, gaming technology, online knowledge transfer, and communities of practice, with operational support tools and immediate feedback. You see now on police shows the vast amount of video available because people have cameras in their cars, and now people are starting to wear those cameras. Those are going to be training opportunities in real-life situations.
That's why I say that what we need, going forward, is research, best practices, and a sector-wide approach to finding what the training model of the future looks like. It's all about getting the best skills for people for the least amount of cost.
There's great stuff happening in Depot. For example, in the firearms training they do, they prove that you can sit with the simulator and do just as well as somebody beside you with a real gun, but at a fraction of the cost and certainly with no risk.
Yet police organizations don't change very quickly, so they want more and more research. I think what we have to do is convince people that there are new ways of doing things. As long as you qualify with a real pistol, it should be fine.