Yesterday, the world police organization launched INTERPOL’s Metaverse during its General Assembly in India. The initial virtual world is primarily designed for immersive training courses for forensic investigations.

“To many, the Metaverse seems to herald an abstract future, but the issues it raises are what have always motivated INTERPOL: supporting our member countries to fight crime and make the world, virtual or otherwise, safer for those who they inhabit it”. said INTERPOL Secretary General Jürgen Stock.

The organization has created a group of experts to ensure that new virtual worlds are ‘secure by design’. It is also participating in a World Economic Forum initiative on metaverse governance alongside Meta, Microsoft, Mastercard, JP Morgan, and numerous major brands, as well as blockchain and web3 names such as Animoca Brands and Decentraland.

“For police to understand the Metaverse, we need to experience it,” said Madan Oberoi, INTERPOL Executive Director for Technology and Innovation.

He is concerned about potential metaverse crimes, including against children, data theft, counterfeiting, ransomware, sexual assault, and stalking. One of the challenges is that something that is criminal in the physical world may not be criminal in the virtual world.

INTERPOL also sees the benefits of virtual worlds for its own use, such as remote working, crime scene evidence collection and preservation, and training.

On the subject of training, since the start of the pandemic, Accenture has onboarded 150,000 new employees into its metaverse experience.