“Put your hands up! Anything you say can be used against you in a virtual court of law!” Many people might intimate that the Metaverse has no real use, but when it comes to learning and training, its utility simply cannot be disputed. It isn’t all just fun and laughs, and while most current metaverse projects are nothing more than open sandbox games, that isn’t actually what the Metaverse is…at all. And it may be generous to call VR games and experiences metaverses, but right now, they’re about the closest thing we have to a metaverse. About a week ago, INTERPOL unveiled its very own metaverse geared towards educating law enforcement personnel across the globe. This is a bold step forward for the international policing organization and will almost certainly streamline their operations as worthy candidates from across the world will be able to attend courses regardless of geographic and physical barriers. So without further ado, let’s find out more about this development!
Policing in the 21st Century
As technology has advanced, so too have lawbreakers and criminal syndicates. These days policing is more than just the physical act of chasing after bank robbers or investigating murders. Indeed, online fraud, money laundering, hacks, cyberattacks and email phishing schemes are a mere sample of some of the major issues law enforcement agencies now have to take into consideration and actively combat. This means that police officers and investigators need to adapt their techniques and use effective countermeasures in order to ensure that these wrongdoers don’t get the upper hand. In other words, organizations like INTERPOL can never rest in their pursuit of justice and must constantly innovate so that they can anticipate criminal activity and nip it in the bud.
It therefore comes as no surprise that INTERPOL have gone to great lengths to create their own metaverse which is basically a digital copy of the INTERPOL headquarters located in Lyon , France. This isn’t the first time we at MSQ.io have covered organizations creating digital twins of their facilities in the Metaverse, and as time goes by, there’s little doubt that more and more organizations will be using this exact approach in order to reach a wider, global audience.
Check out our article Attending College in the Metaverse - Welcome to Metaversity! by clicking here.
INTERPOL describes their metaverse as follows:
Fully operational, the INTERPOL Metaverse allows registered users to tour a virtual facsimile of the INTERPOL General Secretariat headquarters in Lyon, France without any geographical or physical boundaries, interact with other officers via their avatars, and even take immersive training courses in forensic investigation and other policing capabilities. The INTERPOL Metaverse is provided through the INTERPOL Secure Cloud, ensuring its neutrality.
So while the INTERPOL Metaverse may be graphically quite simple, the main objective is to educate and prepare people so that they can take an active part in ensuring that the world is a safer place for all. It also stands to reason that a metaverse that requires too much processing power and rendering would be a barrier to entry for many people who lack access to facilities and infrastructure in other parts of the world. Over time, as infrastructure and technology improves, I’m sure we’ll see more realistic metaverses arise as well as ones that are easier to navigate and interact within.
Getting Future-proof
The world has changed drastically in the last few years. A lot of work has gone remote, and organizations now consist of people from all over the world. We are more interconnected than ever before, and this complex array of connections requires some measure of oversight and protection. If law enforcement agencies hope to keep up with criminals, they’re going to have to use every tool in their arsenal (and then some) in order to achieve this. Staying one step ahead is a difficult task, but with more capable people across a broader geographic area, the odds tip more in favor of the good guys.
It will be interesting to see just how much utility INTERPOL gets out of their own metaverse. With the amount of criminal activity just on the web, and with the threat of a major cyberattack constantly looming overhead (I mean, Australia’s Medibank just had all of its customer data compromised in a cyberattack ), I hope that this foray into the Metaverse makes all the difference and helps prepare people for the worst.
Some of the worst criminals truly are masterminds, so it’s up to INTERPOL and other law enforcement agencies to employ their best minds and tactics to deal with these threats and protect the innocent from harm. Until then, I might just visit INTERPOL’s Metaverse myself and take a look around…if I have clearance, of course.
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