Loli Police Department — Metaverse's Newest Police Force Causes Tension in the VR World
Composed of 11,000 discord members, the Loli Police Department is the Metaverse's first police force patrolling avatars and their actions.
March 14 2022, Published 10:34 a.m. ET
Loli police deparment celebrates its two year anniversary
The metaverse has developed rapidly since the conversation about it first began. People can buy property, get married, or even create their own museum. However, in the little time that has passed since it first became a thing, there has already been sexual assault in the metaverse. So, who is going to police the metaverse?
In January, players in the metaverse were reporting that their avatars were being groped in the alternate reality world. Simulations of groping and various physical boundary violations occurred, which led to the development of the metaverse police.
Lpd members have coffee and donuts
The Loli Police Department is the authority force in the metaverse.
The Loli Police Department, also known as LPD, is the new police force monitoring the metaverse. According to Input Magazine, the Loli Police Department busted into a metaverse spa to arrest a wanted criminal. The arrest quickly developed into a hostage situation as the criminal in question grabbed a bystander and used them to make demands to LPD. At a certain point, LPD had their SWAT division handle the situation, which ended with the hostage being freed and the criminal avatar being arrested.
However, this was all staged and a roleplay. The Loli Police Department is run by volunteers. There are staff members, an LPD captain, and cadets. This is all organized through a Discord chat that has over 11,000 members. “We have two-hour patrols where we break up into squads, go out into the world of VRChat, and interact with people to start roleplays,” stated Jura who is an LPD sergeant and trains recruits.
LPD shares tweet about what the force does in VR
Players have reported tension between themselves and the LPD.
The development also includes hospitals and various medical divisions where the roleplay can extend to giving someone "treatment." The roleplay is meant to be a mirror of the real-life environment of policing, which means it also includes the bad. From harassment to abuse by authority, it’s all happening in the metaverse. One person said, “I can pull out a bag of weed and make it look like it came out of someone’s pocket. They always say it’s not theirs.”
People who encounter the LPD in the virtual reality world use the meeting as a chance to air their frustration at policing in the real world. Former LPD captain by the name of Hrófur commented on the metaverse social tension between players and authority figures and said, “Especially when there’s police violence going on in the U.S. we get a lot more people responding and saying curse words to us like 'F the police.'”
Since the metaverse is a virtual reality world that's just filled with several attributes of the real world, it’s to be expected that it will become polluted by things people may not want to be part of or have to experience. It’s likely that as the metaverse continues to be developed in various ways, the LPD will continue to grow. While it’s just considered to be roleplay, it’s possible that can change.