Mexico City police officers train with virtual reality

Mexico City police officers train at the first Virtual Reality Training Centre in Latin America.

The officers, wearing glasses that project them onto the crime scene, face the mission of the day: to free a girl kidnapped by an armed man in Tepito, a neighbourhood in the centre of the capital with high levels of violence.

"This is a complete change in the way we do our training," says one instructor at the centre in the Mexican capital.

The first virtual reality training centre (Cerv) in Latin America was inaugurated on February 15 at the Mexico City Police University, a megalopolis of nine million inhabitants where officials say they have reduced the level of insecurity in three years.

According to the mayor’s office, this virtual reality system is made up of one hundred “motion capture cameras” and is only owned by “three police officers from the United States and one from Israel”.

Police officers, with glasses presenting them at the crime scene, face the day’s mission: freeing a girl kidnapped by an armed man in Tepito, a neighbourhood in the centre of the capital, with high rates of violence and In the presence of elders, criminal gangs in the capital.

Mexico City has invested $3.27 million in the centre, said Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, highlighting the $220,000 savings in ammunition.