Now this is cool: Vancouver police use Second Life to recruit

The Van­couver Sun is report­ing that the Van­couver city police depart­ment will be using Second Life to recruit:

At the real-world cam­pus, research assist­ant Joanna Robin­son, 26, sits in front of a com­puter and nav­ig­ates her avatar through the school, into the lec­ture hall.

Inside the meta­verse she meets a VPD officer who is set­ting up the space. The officer­’s hair isn’t on prop­erly and a bald spot is vis­ible, observes Robin­son. She types a note to the cyber cop, who fixes it, then gets back to work.

“There’s a steep learn­ing curve,” says Robinson.

The stu­dent and the officer type back and forth about the com­ing sem­in­ar. Every avatar who attends the vir­tu­al VPD sem­in­ar will get a good­ie bag with a T‑shirt and mug. There will even be doughnuts.

“It’s anoth­er world. Almost any­thing you can think of you can find in there,” Robin­son says, smiling.

And now the police are there too.

“It’s to get recruits,” McQuig­gin says simply. “I just need smart, tech-savvy people.”

Tech­nor­ati Tags: Police, Cops, Van­couver Police, Recruit­ing, Employ­ment, Hir­ing, Second Life, Social Media, Avatar, Tech­no­logy, Cool