A Vancouver police officer stands in a virtual recruitment hall typing on an invisible keyboard.
The cyber cop is busy learning to walk and move inside her new world. While she’s at it, she’s practising her PowerPoint and presentation skills.
The VPD has been prepping to become the first real police force to join the more than 6.7 million inhabitants who live, work, play and learn inside their computers — an initiative aimed at finding real-life people with computer know-how to join the force.
The Vancouver Police Department is poised to become the first real-life police force living in the virtual world. They plan to hold a Second Life recruiting session as a way to lure more tech-savvy recruits.
The Vancouver Police Department is poised to become the first real-life police force living in the virtual world. They plan to hold a Second Life recruiting session as a way to lure more tech-savvy recruits.
On Thursday, the department will go public with a recruitment seminar inside Second Life — the most popular online metaverse or alternative universe on the web — aimed at attracting the next generation of police candidates from around the globe.
The Vancouver police officers involved in the recruitment on Second Life have their own avatars, or Second Life persona, dressed in a specially designed VPD uniform, badge, belt and radio. They’re also trained in the other-world customs and commands of the virtual society.
The rationale for the sci-fi approach to recruitment is simple, says Insp. Kevin McQuiggin, head of the department’s tech crimes division: If people are on Second Life, they’re likely to be web-savvy, a quality the police department is looking for in new recruits.
Internet and technology-related crimes, from fraud to harassment, are common, McQuiggin says. In fact, he says, almost every major crime involves technology in some way, shape or form.
“It’s important for us, as an organization, to keep abreast of modern technology — both from an educational standpoint and an outreach standpoint, and from an investigative standpoint,” McQuiggin says.
“Any new media that comes out, any new form of communication, crime is going to migrate there.”