Herrmann and Gerlach: Hunting criminals with high-tech

June 5, 2023

Hunting criminals with high-tech: Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann and Digital Minister Judith Gerlach present the Crime Scene Virtual Reality Room of the State Office of Criminal Investigation for crime reconstruction, which is unique in Germany

Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann and Digital Minister Judith Gerlach, together with police experts, today presented the so-called ‘Crime Scene Virtual Reality Room’ of the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office, or ‘Holodeck’ for short. Thanks to high-tech and VR goggles, crime scenes can be recreated and committed there virtually in three dimensions. “With this, we are taking on a pioneering role throughout Germany,” Herrmann explained. “The holodeck revolutionises modern crime scene and investigation work. The approximately 670,000 euros are excellently invested in the fight against crime.” Judith Gerlach: “Through digitalisation, Bavaria continues to be at the forefront of progress in investigative work into the future.”

As the Minister of the Interior explained, the Holodeck offers investigators, experts and public prosecutors completely new approaches to reconstructing crimes, especially complex capital offences. Investigators are no longer solely dependent on documented evidence, photographs and witness statements. Rather, they can explore the crime scene themselves, check described scenarios for their credibility, adopt any perspective and analyse the crime at any time, even long after the crime scene has been released. “In the holodeck, our investigators can reconstruct every conceivable course of events and analyse the effects of a wide variety of courses of action,” Herrmann clarified. “This also helps to better understand potential motives and perpetrator profiles.”

Digital Minister Gerlach added: “With our extended reality projects (“XR hubs”) in Munich, Nuremberg and Würzburg and the funding programme for XR at the FilmFernsehFonds Bayern (FFF Bayern), which is unique in Germany, we support the use of virtual realities in fields such as craft education and training, art and culture or in the social sector. With the use of this high technology, Bavaria is now also breaking completely new ground in the investigation of crimes and strengthening the work in fighting crime with the help of digitalisation. It is important to us that high technology always benefits people. The Holodeck is an impressive example of how this can be achieved – using high-tech to hunt down criminals.”

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