Newsletter and News Stories

Using Virtual Reality to Assess Ethical Decision-Making

With 7 police agencies from BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario, we are assessing the decision-making capabilities of policing applicants using virtual reality (VR) and immersive simulation scenarios. In coordination with our Spatial Technologies Applied Research and Training (START) Centre, we have been developing a series of authentic interactions that can help police agencies more authentically assess candidates. We recently presented this project at the Alberta Association Chiefs of Police (AACP) subcommittee on recruitment and retention.

Initial feedback from our research partner agencies has been obtained on the environment, non-player characters, and the interactions that will assist agencies in understanding more clearly an applicant's behaviours and thought process when faced with realistic scenarios in a public setting.

Currently, our XR development team is creating the digital environment, characters, and interactions based on partner feedback. We are aiming to have a prototype sent to our partner agencies at the beginning of December 2023. 

Brandon Sun Article: https://www.brandonsun.com/local/2023/04/06/police-stepping-into-world-of-vr 

Research team: Dave Maze and Dr. Kirsten Fantazir

Discovering Better Ways to Engage and Recruit Youth

Our applied research project examines the impact of existing youth engagement programs on public safety recruitment and identifies how programs can evolve to improve career outcomes. 

The main purpose is to foster student involvement and examine the youth cadet programs that currently exist in Western Canada. 

Secondly, this research aims to review and combine the information on youth engagement strategies used in public safety. 

Thirdly, the research team endeavours to determine what strengths, challenges and opportunities exist in current youth cadet programs that can be strengthened and adapted by other public safety agencies. We are currently working with five agencies from BC, AB, SK, and MB on this project.

Research team: Dean Kolebaba and Gord Ryall

Exploring Police Recruit Identity Formation

When new police recruits make the transition from being regular civilians to being sworn members of a police organization, they undergo a process of identity formation and perspective development. It’s an intensely personal process that can be enhanced by the development of new job-related skills and other factors.

“Police agencies have a continued challenge of recruiting and retaining new members,” says Dr. Urasaki. “The study will explore the transition of police recruits into their new roles as police officers, and it may also inform the development of strategies for municipal police agencies to recruit, retain and manage their members.”

Through one-on-one interviews with police recruits, Dr. Urasaki will document the data collection using recorded audio interviews, which will then be transcribed and coded. The coding process will determine whether common characteristics exist between research participants regarding their perspective development.

The project findings will provide insight on the process of perspective development for newly hired police officers working in a municipal agency, which could inform approaches to policing in other jurisdictions. 

Research team: Dr. Jim Urasaki

New ways of learning, through traditional ways of knowing

Lethbridge College leaders are discovering new ways of learning and exploring traditional Indigenous ways of knowing. In 2023, Lethbridge College formed Kakyosin (“coming to know” in Blackfoot), which is an indigenous-informed Research Committee tasked with developing research protocols based on traditional Indigenous methodologies.

Lowell Yellowhorn, Indigenous Services Manager, says the group’s name, Kakyosin, suits its purpose. He says, “When you put that word into context in English, it is essentially defined as ‘coming to a place of knowing,’ so that really fits with the college’s research mandate. That’s why we chose Kakyosin. That’s what it entails. We really are coming to a place of knowing, in a good way.”

The Kakyosin initiative is focused on incorporating Indigenous ways of knowing into the college’s applied research projects through the Centre for Applied Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CARIE). The committee is comprised of 15 internal and external partners who are learning from each other and expanding its understanding of Indigenous-informed research protocols and methodologies.

“It underpins everything,” says Dave McMurray, Manager, Applied Research Operations. “It’s about developing those principles and protocols for engaging with Indigenous communities in research. It isn’t just in one area of applied research; it’s institutional, so it ties back to the Niitsitapi Strategy.”

The creation of the Kakyosin committee was a natural progression of the Niitsitapi Strategy, which is a commitment to truth and reconciliation at Lethbridge College. The Niitsitapi Strategy guides the college toward an understanding of the cultural perspectives of Indigenous peoples and communities. It is focused on Indigenous cultural inclusion and deepening connections with internal and external Indigenous communities.

The goal of the strategy is to ensure the college community can come together for inclusive, diverse, engaged, and successful education. This strategy is not the start of that work, but rather, it is an extension and continuation of work the college has been doing for many years.

Kakyosin team: Lowell Yellowhorn, Dave McMurray, Anamaria Turuk, and Dr. Kirsten Fantazir

Deciding When to Use Deadly Force

When is it appropriate for police officers to use deadly force? The answer is subjective depending on the role someone plays in any given situation. In a hostage scenario, for example, you might have a different opinion on deadly force depending on whether you are a hostage, a hostage-taker, a police officer, a witness, or simply watching the incident unfold on TV or social media. Your preconceptions about police may also play a role in your opinion.

The primary goal of this study is to understand how deadly threat situations are perceived by people. This applied research project aims to understand whether the target of a deadly threat (a hostage or a police officer being threatened by a suspect, for example) influences whether responding officers use deadly force, and whether people in general think officers should use deadly force against a suspect. A secondary goal of this research is to examine how individual perceptions and opinions influence these results.

Beyond providing insights into these issues, the results of this applied research project may have training and policy implications for police services across Canada.

Research team: Dr. Kirsten Fantazir

Community Integration Through Art Pissatsinaskssini

Through partnership with the Ninastako Cultural Centre (NCC), this project will design, implement, and evaluate the Community Integration Through Art Pissatsinaskssini (CITAP) program. CITAP will honour the Siksikaitsitapi People through a relationship that is respectful, relevant, reciprocal, and responsible by using Indigenous ways of knowing and learning to improve the community integration of marginalized people in Lethbridge, Alberta.

Specifically, CITAP will host weekly meetings of a social recreational support group that will include creating art, sharing food, building relationships, and learning about health and wellbeing in an environment guided by Blackfoot knowledge and worldview.

Each meeting will involve a member of the research team, an artist/craftsperson, participants and at least one of the following: an Elder, a knowledge keeper, a health or wellness professional, or a service organization representative.

The goal of each meeting is to socialize and build relationships, create art, and learn about a topic relevant to the lives of participants in an informal setting that encourages open discussion. In this way,

CITAP will break down systemic barriers between marginalized people and the services they need. Participation will be open to anyone and CITAP will be inclusive of diversity.

By infusing Indigenous ways of knowing and learning and Blackfoot language and cultural knowledge into the program, CITAP will work toward reconciliation by decreasing conflict and building positive and equitable relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. The CITAP program will designed, implemented, and evaluated according to the four Rs of Indigenous research: respect, relevance, reciprocity, and responsibility.

Evaluation will take a mixed-methods approach, incorporating quantitative, qualitative, and Indigenous research methods and analysis. Results will be interpreted by the research team, the NCC, collaborators, and participants to guard against the misinterpretation of results.

If diverse interpretations result from the project, all interpretations will be included in the results. Knowledge gained from, and created by, this project will be disseminated and mobilized widely in both scholarly and community venues. While the research project will last three years, the CITAP program will be sustained in the community well beyond the duration of the research project.

Research team: Jami Albright-Tolman and Dr. Kirsten Fantazir