UK Police Drivers Use Gran Turismo Sport to Train

This wasn’t a press release we expected to see in our inbox this morning, but Sony is throwing all of its marketing resources behind Gran Turismo Sport at the moment, so we probably shouldn’t be all that surprised. PlayStation has partnered with Lincolnshire Police Force to – and we quote – “offer supplementary training to their specialist police drivers”.

Essentially, the coppers were tasked with driving around Silverstone, then were given an “intense training regime” on the PlayStation 4 game. Upon returning to the track, all of the officers improved upon their best times, with one registering a whopping 5.7 second improvement on their first lap after practicing within the game.

“There will never be a replacement for traditional training methods but we are always looking for innovative ways to supplement the learning of our officers and staff,” assistant chief constable Shaun West said. “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.”

There’s a full-length video documenting the training day above. Perhaps Polyphony Digital should consider some post-release DLC where you have to respond to emergencies by blasting through Lincoln’s busy city streets? Okay, perhaps not.