'Police officers need better training in firearms'

An exclusive interview for the "InterCÂMBIO" newsletter, to view previous issues (in Portuguese and Spanish) please click here.

InterCAMBIO interviewed William Godnick, Public Security Programme Coordinator of the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UN-LiREC), Godnick discusses his latest course “Curso Interinstitucional de Capacitación para la Lucha contra el Tráfico Ilícito de Armas de Fuego” developed for police officers in the region. In this interview, Godnick points out the importance of police officer training and how exercises can contribute to lower juvenile violence.

How did the idea for the course arise? What led you to launch it this year?

This training course is actually the second phase of a course that UN-LiREC developed back in 2002 to help Latin American and Caribbean governments strengthen their capacity to implement the UN programme of action on small arms and other international and regional instruments. Between 2002 and 2009, UN-LiREC trained more than 2,500 law enforcement officials from Latin America with the greatest number of training taking place in Colombia in partnership with UN Office on Drugs and Crime, in Brasil in alliance with Treinasp and in the Dominican Republic with UNDP. The original training manual was developed together with the Organization of American States and Interpol.

In 2009, UN-LiREC with the support of the Swedish International Development Agency decided to update and transform the training curriculum to include the International Tracing Instrument as well as improve the integration of content on issues like human rights, armed violence, gender and youth. The piloting of the new course curricula took place in Lima, Peru in November last year. In this course 60 officials from the police, armed forces, customs, intelligence, the national firearms registry and judges in charge of cases dealing with illicit firearms. So far in 2010 we have received requests to deliver the course in Costa Rica, Bolivia, Colombia and El Salvador.

What is the course’s main goal for police officers?

The three key course objectives are the same for the police as they are for the other institutions that we train. First, we hope that the course will strengthen the participants’ abilities to implement the relevant international instruments to combat the illicit trade in firearms, ammunition and explosives. Second, the inter-institutional nature of the course seeks to open and create channels of communication and coordination at a technical and operational level between the different government institutions responsible for combating illicit firearms trafficking. Third, we hope those trained will be multipliers of knowledge and practice by sharing their knowledge on an informal and formal basis as well as integrating all or part of the course into existing permanent training institutions and curricula.  Obviously, there are broader objectives of reducing illicit arms trafficking and armed violence in the region, but these can only be achieved through a comprehensive government approach of which training is just one element.

In your opinion, what are the main flaws and strengths in the traditional training given to police officers in Central America?

Both the access to and quality of police training most certainly varies from country to country within Central America. Speaking more broadly to the Latin American and Caribbean region, based on UN-LiREC’s experience, in many countries police officers receive very little, if any, training once they graduate from the police academy.  In regards to firearms, in many countries police officers are taught to shoot firearms, but are not provided specific training on the technical aspects of firearms and techniques to curb illicit trafficking. We have also come to learn that many police officers do not know how to make use the Interpol resources that are available to national police forces for assisting in illicit firearms tracing. Finally, there is limited dissemination of the international firearms instruments and the obligations and tools available necessary to implement them.

What are the main aspects stressed in your training process? And how does this methodology differ from other traditional courses?

The course takes place over a ten day period. The first 7.5 days are dedicated to classroom training on the identification and classification of firearms, ammunition and explosives; contextualizing arms trafficking and armed violence within human rights and human security frameworks; disseminating legal instruments and normative frameworks; intelligence and investigation; and stockpile management. The final 2.5 days are devoted to a simulation exercise where participants are organized into teams that have to carry out an operation against illicit firearms trafficking beginning with the identification of relevant intelligence and followed by all the steps required in the real world such as interviewing witnesses, using the appropriate level of force to detain the accused, preserve the crime scene and the evidence obtained, interrogate the suspects and witnesses and present the evidence before a judge who will evaluate the integrity of the evidence provided as well as the respect for human rights and the rights of minors if they are involved.

In order to prepare for this simulation participants receive additional orientation during the theoretical component of the course on the use of force both from a practical and conceptual level, crime scene management and evidence chain of custody in an accusatory system and international standards on gender and the treatment of minors. What is perhaps unique about this course is that it focuses on strengthening basic technical skills while also helping participants develop a better understanding of the context in which illicit arms trafficking takes place.

What do you think will be the role of police officers in the prevention of Juvenile Violence? And how is this new role addressed during the training process?

Police officers are clearly on the front line of juvenile justice prevention. This course is not directly targeted at preventing juvenile violence as such, but the evidence is clear that illicit arms trafficking is a major factor that fuels lethal violence among youth. The course recognizes that youth are frequently involved in illicit arms trafficking, including the fabrication of craft weapons, so the simulation exercise integrates one scenario where the course participants have to intervene against an illicit ammunition factory where youth gangs are involved. However, at the same time, in the neighborhood where the factory is located there is a high population density with lots of poor, uneducated, young men in the streets most of whom have nothing to do with the illicit activity. In the simulation the participants have to be able to identify the factory and the youth involved based on evidence available not on their physical appearance and this requires entering the community, carrying out interrogations of witnesses and persons of interest with respect and only using force when required and in line with international standards on use of force and the rights of minors.  The training process tries to give the participants a hands-on opportunity to deal with a real life situation.