Empathy through Design

Building police empathy through creative design

Integrating disciplinary insights from law, design studies, and sociology, this project explores how immersive XR (extended reality) technologies can be used to reduce bias and enhance empathy, specifically in the policing of Black and Black heritage communities.

In its first stage, working with Ruth Bernatek (sociology/law) we collaborated with Adela Glyn-Davies in Warwick Design Studies to construct a prototype immersive and interactive experience, enabling officers to engage in a novel way with the complex and sometimes contradictory perspectives and experiences of officers and of policed communities. Developed using Figmin XR, participants wear a headset that allows them to interact with audio and tactile material objects in a short sequence of virtual rooms and urban spaces, which form a narrative around policing. The original script and spatial choreography is drawn from elements of Hodgson and Lewis’ existing data set, interviews and recent workshops.

In July, the prototype was trialled by officers from across West Midlands Police, providing valuable insight into the possibilities offered by engagement through XR technologies for building understanding and empathy and new resources for police training. The trial also highlighted how the team might develop the work further, to including more young people and other groups whose voices are seldom heard or represented, but who are disproportionately affected by policing.

The project continues our work using arts-led approaches to critically engage with police practice and the damaged relationships between police and some communities . More broadly, it attends to the growing interest in the potential of creative methods, in interdisciplinary work, and in research, to address issues around social (in)justice.