Wim Broer
Commissioner of Police
Programme Director - Professional Gaming,Virtual Police Corps Programme
The Netherlands

Abstract
Developing a Backbone Professional Gaming for the Dutch Police: A paradigm shift to an alternate reality

In the post-modern era of the information society the expectation can be stated that policing a free society is demanding a multi-tier approach offering stakeholders, citizens and professionals and sophisticated environment for learning, simulating and experimenting. This alternate reality will be called 25/7, suggesting that the 24/7 presence of the police can be extended by creating a 25th hour, used by professionals for going virtual in order to participate in a challenging game environment. This alternate reality can only be convincing when the geo dimension is powerful, offering different intelligent layers supporting trans-reality and imagination. When 'space' can be varied within different scenarios, ‘time', 'context' and 'meaning' as other meaningful dimensions can be manipulated as well, in order to offer a powerful experience for professionalization at the individual and organizational level. In our contribution we will present the first release of a ‘Backbone Professional Gaming’ the framework of a comprehensive strategy to use serious gaming as a change catalyst for the development of the Dutch police as well as a stimulus for professional development of its police officers. In the 25/7 environment a number of game formats as a result of a combination of numerous game mechanics will be available for game developers and police trainers. Each of those formats represents the way meaning and purpose of human behavior can be understood by participants. To realize sophistication in these processes of interpretation and navigation a geo dimension (real of allegorical) can be seen as a pre-condition for interpretation and development. The optimal combination of a game format and geo design is the aim of this contribution.