On October 20, the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) announced the launch of the first metaverse. The organization unveiled the news during the 90th anniversary of its General Assembly in India.

According to the release, the Interpol metaverse allows users worldwide to access Interpol’s headquarters in Lyon, France.

Visitors to the metaverse will be able to explore and interact with other officers through their own avatars, taking classes or private police training courses and intensive forensic investigation training, among other activities.

During the ceremony, General Assembly officials were able to enter the metaverse using VR equipment to walk around the Interpol building in France.

Interpol to offer training courses in the metaverse

The goal of Interpol, in addition to offering tours, is to make the most of the metaverse by providing immersive training courses to its officers, allowing them to perform police and forensic practices without compromising any real-life mission.

Jürgen Stock, Secretary General of Interpol, said that Interpol is working to make users around the world feel safe even in this new era of virtual interactions:

“For many, the Metaverse seems to herald an abstract future, but the issues it raises are those that have always motivated INTERPOL – supporting our member countries to fight crime and making the world, virtual or not, safer for those who inhabit it,”

Similarly, Interpol announced the creation of a “metaverse expert group” to enforce laws on a global scale. The specialized unit, created in Singapore, will focus on combating all types of metaverse and cryptocurrency-related crimes by tracking money.

During the ceremony, several Interpol experts gave a live virtual demonstration where they trained a group of officers in travel document verification, “teleporting” them to a virtual airport to apply their knowledge at a VR border post.

The Crime Also Exists in the Metaverse

The metaverse and the Web3 are no strangers to Interpol. In a recent turn of events, Interpol issued a red notice for Do Kwon, after the collapse of the Terra ecosystem. It has also released various investigations about the use of cryptocurrencies in cybercrime and traditional criminal activities.

According to the report of the General Assembly presented on October 19, cyber threats have been increasing exponentially globally according to data collected in the organization’s 195 member countries, so this new implementation seeks to target a criminal sector that is becoming an emerging threat.

In addition, Interpol said that financial crime and cybercrime are interrelated, as many of them are being carried out through digital technologies that also serve to launder money.

Because of this, Stock noted that the metaverse training initiative and the tactical team will continue to develop in the coming years to become “a genuine asset to law enforcement agencies around the world.”