Vancouver Cops Recruit In-World
by Pixeleen Mistral on 29/05/07 at 10:07 pm
Some residents concerned that BC bud may be to blame
by Bayesian TextBot
The Vancouver Sun reports plans by the Vancouver Police Department to begin recruiting new officers from inside Second Life. The thought behind this “sci-fi approach to recruitment” (sic!) is that no matter who they run into, that person must be web-savvy to have navigated their way over to the recruitment hall in the first place.
keep your hands in the air, and step away from the keyboard
All of this makes total sense, of course. Anybody able to log into SL must be highly qualified as a law enforcement officer. W-Hat PD ftw!
Members of some SL military roleplay groups voiced concerns about this new competition in recruiting talent, particularly because the RL police have better uniforms, but until the actual recruiting event occurs it is unclear how seriously these concerns should be taken. Those interested should visit Digital Hollywood Island May 31st between 5 and 7 pm. We hope we didn’t lower the caliber of the applicant pool by reporting that.
authentic uniforms available
If anything, though, the move suggests that perhaps the real-world police are a bit anachronistic. Speaking on the roles that these future recruits will adopt, Insp. Kevin McQuiggin, head of the department’s tech crimes division said: “It’s going to be interesting when we start to receive crime reports — you know, harassment cases or things like that — in the virtual world,” he says. “How are we going to deal with them?”
This suggests that they’re NOT receiving these complaints, and that nobody is calling for their assistance in these matters at the moment. Rather, this is a move toward anticipated demand for their future services.
Also, apparently, location doesn’t matter either: “Even if an avatar represents a real-life candidate who lives in England or Germany, he says, they will be considered.” No real details were given on how in the world that works. McQuiggin says simply. “I just need smart, tech-savvy people.”
Indeed he does.
Another tech savvy policewoman
Baba
May 30th, 2007
You’ll never catch me alive, Coppers!
Dusk
May 30th, 2007
> W-Hat PD ftw!
Actually, the Baku PD already exists.
Prokofy Neva
May 30th, 2007
I hope they stay away from those kids’ RP police departments inworld as recruits, they’d make terrible RL policemen.
Lewis Nerd
May 30th, 2007
Are they really that desperate for police in Vancouver that they have to recruit in SL?
It’s bad enough with fake cop wannabe’s in here, let alone real cop wannabe’s.
lewis
marilyn murphy
May 30th, 2007
i really think this whole idea on the part of the vancouver police is a mis-understanding of what sl is.
there is little fear that some idiot from here will become a officer i don’t think. testing for police positions in a department that size is extensive. yes no matter how hard they screen, they can end up hiring idiots, but they dont last long usually.
marilyn murphy
May 30th, 2007
addendum: they seek computer jocks, so..the real problem they face is the restricted pay schedule. they probably cant afford a truly good computer jock who can make more money just about anywhere.
marilyn murphy
May 30th, 2007
addendum: they seek computer jocks, so..the real problem they face is the restricted pay schedule. they probably cant afford a truly good computer jock who can make more money just about anywhere.
Maximilian Goldflake
May 30th, 2007
What’s an old penny made out of?
Dirty Copper!
shockwave yareach
May 30th, 2007
I wonder why the Vancouver police think that being computer savy and a Web Geek are prequesites for becoming a police officer? And will anyone free enough to be able to lounge around SL at 2slt (4 Central) instead of being at work be willing to chuck it all, move to BC and become a cop? Other than some in Europe and college kids just out of school, I don’t know many who’ll be able to visit this place during their office hour. Kinda misses the whole point about the web in general as a place that doesn’t keep office hours in the first place.
Just another example of someone leaping onto the next great thing without a clue about what they are leaping after. I could see content creators like ESC having hiring drives in SL. Maybe even programming firms or IBM. But a city police force? “You have the right to remain muted. Anything you say can and will be logged in spite of the TOS and used against you.”
MR. CHARLIE told me so...
May 30th, 2007
I’ve gotta say a few nice words about the RP police in SL.
One day I had a weird problem that required some sleuthing-out. In my quest to figure out what was happening, I bumped into a member of an RP police dept. and he was real nice in joining me in my attempt to put the pieces together. He even brought in the founder of their group to help.
It was a crazy (human created) problem, and we never did figure it out completely before submitting an AR report on it, but it sure was nice to have someone else helping me. They were very polite and professional, and seemed to thouroughly enjoy exercising their RP abilities and investigative skills. I’m extremely grateful for their assistance.
If any SL RP Police are reading this – thanks much, good luck, and keep up the good work.
Real life cops can kiss my a$$ though.
humanoid
May 30th, 2007
The local cops and sheriffs are not at all computer oriented. The bigwigs have email addresses that they’ve probably never used. The departments don’t even provide commonly used forms in PDF or Word format on their respective websites. I’m tempted to go downtown one day and ask for one of each form, so I can host them myself.