Law Enforcement Training & Simulation

CHALLENGE:

To enable law enforcement to quickly detect unseen criminal threat risks that increase their ability to effectively perform their duties.

BENEFIT:

Law enforcement personnel and resources are better prepared for on the job conditions having had exposure to crime-related smells and atmospheric effects. Meth lab scent, gunfire airborne residue, body odor, and corpse stench become key tools in understanding situational awareness, mitigating “flight or fight” response, and fighting true crime.

Recognizing Crime Related Smells

Our law enforcement agencies are called to protect and serve our communities, placing themselves on the front lines of some of society’s most perilous scenarios. Law enforcement involves situational awareness at legal and illegal incidents that can feel threatening, uncomfortable or chaotic. Providing security at events, crowd management, investigations, and criminal drug detection activities can escalate quickly. Officers and other field personnel must remain alert at all times and understand their surroundings all the while ensuring public safety. This assault to the senses can be overwhelming. Therefore, there is a case to support the introduction of smells into law enforcement training programs so officers can recognize and identify potential threats, risks, and crimes.

Crime Stinks

A recent article in Law Enforcement Today discusses the idea that “associated odors contribute to sixth sense perceptions”, asserting, “Cops frequently refer to the sixth sense that officers rely upon to detect crime and remain safe. While smell is one of five senses of perception, it also contributes to part of the unexplainable, sixth sense. Rest assured that associated odors are part of the process. Officers can detect crime with their sense of smell as well as address odor complaints that may arise on the scene. SensoryCo understands that “crime stinks” and is proud to provide simulated crime-related smells and atmospheric effects for law enforcement training programs.

Unique Smells Are Associated With Police Work

Particular odors are indicative of different crimes with distinct odors associated with foul play. For example, a probation/parole search with unpleasant smells can indicate a violation and there is a very distinct odor that indicates drug abuse that is said to have combined scent of cigarette smoke, burnt marijuana, and spilled beer.
First responders may have exposure to a dead body, commonly referred to as a “stinker” in law enforcement circles, and this is an unforgettable if not frightening. Contact with such an odor can produce a “fight or flight” response or it can cause a physical reaction such as vomiting and gagging. Live immersive training scenarios prepare police officers to understand their body’s reaction when faced with the unexpected and unknown. Incorporating aroma generators and smoke systems to create different crime related smells and atmospheric effects adds authenticity to law enforcement instruction, strengthening and heightening each sense to be put to memory for future use.

SensoryCo provides a collection of real-time 4D sensory effects that create triggers for impulse response. Implementing scent systems, smoke systems, and water effects into live immersive training environments prepare law enforcement agencies for real on the job events.

Common odors associated with crime scenes and effects used in law enforcement training and simulation:

• burnt bodies, singed hair, blood, vomit
• gun powder, IED materials
• burnt wires, natural gas, trash
• meth lab, acetone, sulfuric acid

To view or download a PDF with a more comprehensive list of aromas, click here.