Culturally Competent, Ethical, and Empathetic AI Police E-Trainer for Improving Non-Lethal De-Escalation Skills in a Multi-User Virtual Reality Environment to Mitigate Murders Against Black Males.

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Police violence against black males, in the United States (U.S.), is a public health disparity [37]. Physical & psychological violence that is structurally mediated by systems of law enforcement, results in deaths, injuries, trauma, and stress that disproportionately affect blacks in the U.S. According to a 2019 study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Americans’ risk of being killed by police is highest for black men, who face ~1 in 1,000 chance of being killed by police over their lifetime. White men have ~1 in 2,500 chance of being killed by police over their lifetime, and Latino men a ~1 in 1,900 chance. Women less likely than men to be killed by police. Their lifetime risk is ~1 in 33,000, compared to 1 in 2,000 for men. Moreover, black men, in the U.S., are up to 3.5 times more likely than whites to be killed by law enforcement; and 1 in every 1,000 black men will die at the hands of police. In Baltimore, Maryland (MD), The Department of Justice (DOJ) revealed, in a 163 page report, that African Americans were targeted and abused by Baltimore police indicating a conspiracy against black citizens. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates the overall cost of fatal and nonfatal injuries, by law enforcement, is ~$1.8 billion including medical costs and work lost. Public health policy experts suggest that mandatory training shall be implemented to reduce implicit bias of law enforcement officers against communities of color. However, little is known about effects of implicit biases on behavior, and no experimental studies have been conducted to measure the impact of implicit bias reduction interventions among law enforcement officers. Likewise, officers receive limited de-escalation training; w/training efforts met w/ resistance from police chiefs & national Fraternal Order of Police. During the NIH SBIR Phase 1 effort, Juxtopia team will address aforementioned public health disparities to help mitigate police violence endemic against black males by investigating the technical/commercial feasibility of engineering Juxtopia® CAMMRAD Police De-escalate Virtual Reality (VR) simulation to distribute an artificial intelligent (AI) police e-trainer & e-evaluator, “BES” built on the Juxtopia® Context-Aware Mobile Mixed Reality Assistive Device (CAMMRAD) platform to achieve the following SBIR Phase I Specific Aims. A. Prototype CAMMRAD Police De-Escalate VR e-train/e-evaluate police on de-escalation skills in VR. B. Evaluate CAMMRAD Police De-Escalate VR w/ police in VR scenarios known to lead to escalation.