The Polizia di Stato has begun delivering METI, an immersive education project on road and rail safety, with a first field stage in Palermo from 19 to 21 October 2026. Students wore a headset and faced choices, pressures and risk situations built to be as close to reality as possible, so that they could learn to recognise danger.
METI is promoted by the Polizia di Stato in collaboration with the Department of Psychology of Sapienza University of Rome, and is financed under the POC Legalità 2014-2020 complementary operational programme. Immersive virtual reality and 360-degree technologies are used in classrooms as prevention tools.
The Palermo stage
The Sicilian stage ran over three days:
- Day one: training for road police and railway police operators.
- Days two and three: sessions in two Palermo upper-secondary schools, the Liceo Impastato and the IPSSAR Cascino, with their students.
Each immersive activity is followed by guided reflection, discussion and reworking led by police operators and psychologists. The methodology is described as experiential, participatory and scientifically validated, and includes evaluation tools before and after the interventions.
Rollout
A Rome institutional meeting on 9 October brought together the initiative's referents and marked the move to teaching activities. Palermo was the first field test of the model. After Sicily the programme is due to continue in Puglia, then in Calabria, Basilicata and Campania.
