Policing the Metaverse

It seems the world’s boys in blue have seen the great potential of the metaverse and would like to be part of it. In a surprise move, Interpol its foray into the metaverse. The announcement was made in the organization’s general assembly where it stated that it had created a cloud-hosted metaverse specifically responsible for law enforcement around the world. Visitors can get to this metaverse through the use of Virtual Reality Headsets or through their devices

What you can do on the Interpol Metaverse

The platform was designed to be a virtual representation of Interpol. Visitors have a chance to take tours around Interpol HQ straight from this platform. They can also interact with Interpol staff using avatars. This may be an ideal place to report International crimes and, hopefully, get updates on ongoing investigations. During the announcement, attendees were given a tour of the platform and given some basic tutorials on accessing and using the platform. Interpol Metaverse also allows for training activities to take place. Some of the courses offered are on law enforcement and policing. This metaverse provides an ideal ground for “virtual policing” once training is done. For example, during the launch, visitors on the platform were taken through live training on passenger screening and travel documentation. After the training, the students were directed to a virtual airport where their skills were put to test.

Interpol Works with others to regulate the Metaverse

Interpol is not the only entity seeking to regulate the metaverse. Recently, global tech giants formed an alliance that seeks to create rules on how they can interact on the metaverse. A recent example is where the World Economic Forum partnered with Microsoft, Interpol and Meta to create guidelines and regulations for the Metaverse. These guidelines primarily focused on combating violent crime, scams and misinformation. Other issues this alliance seeks to build consensus on are metaverse governance and how they can leverage the metaverse to generate social and economic value. Just like Interpol, Dubai Police have a presence in the Metaverse. They state that the metaverse offers them an alternative platform for monitoring their community. Users can report offenses such as traffic violations and minor cases on this platform. Dubai Police metaverse has a team of seventy dedicated staff and can support seven languages. This development shows that organizations around the world are slowly warming up to the advent of web 3.0. While launching the platform, Interpol secretary General, Jurgen stock, noted that the metaverse was here to stay. He also stated that the Metaverse will shape how society works and will affect all aspects of society. “The needs of our member states are slowly getting into the metaverse and Interpol is still committed to ensuring that we fight crime, whether it is offline or in the metaverse,” he said.