Police hone high-speed driving skills on PlayStation

Lincolnshire Police officers have added the PlayStation gaming console and Gran Turismo Sport racing game to their arsenal of training tools.

Forging a new partnership with PlayStation, four high-speed pursuit officers paid a visit to Silverstone to attend a driving school with a difference. After lapping the grand prix circuit for real in their BMW patrol cars, they were then summoned to the pits, where they drove the same track in the Gran Turismo racing game.

Any car control issues like excessive understeer, oversteer or traits like braking too early for corners were identified by the simulator, before the officers headed back out in the real cars to put the coaching to the test.

Several of the officers showed a reduction in their lap times almost immediately, thanks to a smoother driving style and better car control.

Assistant Chief Constable Shaun West said: “There'll never be a replacement for traditional training methods, but we're always looking for innovative ways to supplement the learning of our officers and staff.

"If Gran Turismo can help to train world-class racing drivers, then we were keen to explore whether it could offer anything to our officers and help expand the way we think about evolving and refreshing our training methods."

West added: "Also, we’re really keen to progress our immersive learning and exploring this type of training fits that brief well. We regularly ask ourselves: what more could we do to ensure our officers are trained to the highest standards while also accommodating the needs of a workforce that works varied hours, in a number of locations and has different needs and expectations of respective roles?"