Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) must resolve alarms from On-Person Screening (OPS; i.e., body scanner) systems quickly and accurately. Previous work discovered that TSOs’ accuracy in identifying alarm locations is influenced by how the body of the passenger is represented by the avatar. To reflect the operational environment more accurately, a virtual reality (VR) methodology was developed to measure the effect of avatar and alarm design on pat-down performance in a simulated screening scenario. Results comparing performance between two displays suggest that the display type influences pat-down behavior. Specifically, the officers in the prototype display group had greater location accuracy and patted down less extraneous area on the passenger compared to a legacy display. In addition, officers reported moderate to high levels of engagement and immersion and indicated that the VR task was highly representative of their job environment. Realistic scenarios like this can help improve training and operational performance and are not limited to pat-down applications.