Education Research Latest training module VR Falcon is the perfect combination of education and police practice Written on Thursday, January 29, 2026 In launching VR Falcon, the Netherlands Police Academy and the Netherlands Police have added new and innovative VR training to its offerings. VR Falcon is a game in which students find themselves in a virtual escape room. It teaches them to recognise, examine and secure digital traces. What’s new about this training is that students can play it in pairs. ‘The Midden-Nederland and Oost-Nederland Police Units asked us to develop virtual training in digital investigations’, says Marcel van Wijk. Marcel is Information Management Expert at the Netherlands Police Academy. ‘The Police Units already had a clear concept of the training they wanted to deliver but needed help in developing it and making it accessible. The training module will be offered to police officers in frontline teams.’ ‘The Police Units received many questions about digital investigations. Particularly about what can and cannot be examined at a crime scene. Consider, for example, mobile phones. While you are allowed to look at them, you cannot search them; that’s the job of the criminal investigations team. The Police Units wanted their frontline teams to have more knowledge about this subject. They wanted to achieve this through ‘playful’ training.’ Bringing together education and police practice ‘As the Virtual Training Team is part of the Police Academy, we always check if there is a link with education in these types of requests.’ Giny Verschoor, Product Owner of the Virtual Training Team, explains: ‘That’s why we first spoke with education representatives when we received the request, to see if they had also encountered this need for more knowledge of digital investigations in their educational practice.' 'In terms of education, it was important to demonstrate the correct legal framework in the training. For this reason, we expanded the project from how it had first been pitched. It was quite a challenge to create good VR training that isn’t boring. Our game designers have made sure that the training is both informative and engaging. The game is a virtual escape room that stretches over various hotel spaces. There is a hotel room, but also a lift, hallway and parking garage. This makes the gameplay more interesting and entertaining. And you play the game together’, Giny explains. ❛❛ VR offers an engaging experience that is different from e-learning or classroom teaching. Patrick Poost, digital community police officer Not everyone in police practice is used to VR ‘The VR training has been tested extensively by police officers in the two units. They responded very well to the training method’, Marcel explains. ‘By that I mean playing the virtual escape room, although not everyone is used to VR. Digital coaches are present to supervise the training sessions in the police units. We trained the coaches first, and now they provide the training and evaluation.' ‘During the evaluation, officers discuss the dilemmas they faced in the game. This also provides an opportunity to clarify the legal framework. In this way, the VR training is the perfect combination of education and police practice.’ ‘The responses to VR Falcon have all been positive’, says Patrick Proost, Digital Community Police Officer in the Midden-Nederland Police Unit. ‘Everyone enjoys it and views it as a useful method to learn something new. What I also heard is that officers appreciate that they are allowed to make mistakes and learn by doing. VR offers an engaging experience that is different from e-learning or classroom teaching.' ‘My colleagues were very positive too’, adds Jeroen van Rijssen, Digital Professional at the Oost-Nederland Police Unit. ‘I experienced a special moment with two colleagues from our criminal investigations frontline team. They are very critical of the use of VR in education. I asked them to try the criminal investigations module. It took quite some persuading before they agreed to try it for 5 minutes. They ended up playing for almost an hour. They became very competitive and said it was fun and instructive.’ Test phase for students in Amsterdam ‘The VR training is now ready to be tested by students in Basic Police Training’, Giny explains. ‘From 1 February, we will get started at the Academy’s Amsterdam location. The results of this test phase will then be used to make the last improvements. When everything is looking good, the training will be sent to the Curriculum Team. This team decides on the contents of the education programmes and whether new initiatives connect well with police practice. They will determine how and where VR Falcon will be implemented in Basic Police Training.’ ‘Furthermore, we would like to offer the training as part of our Specialist Police Training courses. Recently, a new training programme on digital investigations was made available to all police officers who have completed their basic training, Giny explains. ‘In this Basic Digitally Skilled Investigations training, VR Falcon will be offered as a pilot too.’ Good ideas are always welcomed ‘If a police unit or someone in education has a good idea, they are always welcome to send it’, Giny says. ‘We enjoy developing VR training modules and connecting education and police practice in innovative ways. However, it is important that the request aligns with the educational offerings of the Police Academy.’ ‘Furthermore, the request needs to be more than just a thought’, Marcel adds. ‘It costs time and energy for the police unit and educators to develop new training.’ Giny adds: ‘And you need to consider all the teaching materials that need to be developed. We don’t just create a training tool; it’s a complete educational programme.’