UAE Police Metaverse released to let public interact with cops

The United Arab Emirates has its eye firmly on the growing Metaverse trend. With the region’s AI minister wanting to charge Metaverse Murders as real murders, there is a lot of confusion as to what they think the virtual world is. Nevertheless, they’re going hard on the bandwagon, going as far as to create the UAE Police Metaverse for some reason.

What is the UAE Police Metaverse?

Via The National, Ajman Police have created the first UAE police Metaverse where members of the public can interact with cops. The crude digital world recreates the Ajman Police Station for virtual use.

Seven officers from the local Al Nuaimaiah police station have received Metaverse training. The training included VR glasses and headsets tutorials to fully immerse users into the virtual worlds.

“This was a trial but having proved successful, officers will continue to meet residents virtually,” said head of Ajman Police PR Maj Noura Sultan Al Shamsi.

The UAE Police Metaverse is seen as an alternative to remote meetings like Zoom calls. With an always open chat room, users who need Police assistance could just walk in and ask for help.

“The meetings aimed to explore residents' needs and answer their queries. Then we thought of facilitating this in a way that does not require people’s physical presence,” Al Shamsi said. “Other services would be facilitated through the metaverse world but for now it's limited to meeting officers for general enquiries.”

Read More: UAE AI Minister wants Metaverse Murders to be classed as real crimes

What benefits could this possibly have?

The idea of a virtual police station is a bizarre one. After all, if you want to report a crime you have the option of calling a free number, walking into a police station or even, in some cases, a text live chat option.

But will the idea of an obtuse VR world make interaction with the police any easier? Probably not. With The Metaverse already a cesspit of toxic behaviour, it’s likely going to be more infuriating to talk to police than just going in person.

It is a good idea to have a virtual platform available for those who feel most comfortable talking to police in that form. However, will this virtual world get the traffic it needs to stay open?