Enhancing Law Enforcement Training: A Gamified Approach to Detecting
  Terrorism Financing
Francesco Zola Lander Segurola Erin King Martin Mullins Raul Orduna
Tools for fighting cyber-criminal activities using new technologies are
promoted and deployed every day. However, too often, they are unnecessarily
complex and hard to use, requiring deep domain and technical knowledge. These
characteristics often limit the engagement of law enforcement and end-users in
these technologies that, despite their potential, remain misunderstood. For
this reason, in this study, we describe our experience in combining learning
and training methods and the potential benefits of gamification to enhance
technology transfer and increase adult learning. In fact, in this case,
participants are experienced practitioners in professions/industries that are
exposed to terrorism financing (such as Law Enforcement Officers, Financial
Investigation Officers, private investigators, etc.) We define training
activities on different levels for increasing the exchange of information about
new trends and criminal modus operandi among and within law enforcement
agencies, intensifying cross-border cooperation and supporting efforts to
combat and prevent terrorism funding activities. On the other hand, a game
(hackathon) is designed to address realistic challenges related to the dark
net, crypto assets, new payment systems and dark web marketplaces that could be
used for terrorist activities. The entire methodology was evaluated using
quizzes, contest results, and engagement metrics. In particular, training
events show about 60% of participants complete the 11-week training course,
while the Hackathon results, gathered in two pilot studies (Madrid and The
Hague), show increasing expertise among the participants (progression in the
achieved points on average). At the same time, more than 70% of participants
positively evaluate the use of the gamification approach, and more than 85% of
them consider the implemented Use Cases suitable for their investigations.