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The greatest challenge in confronting bioterrorism stems from the covert nature of the menace as well as the lack of co-ordination between different civilian authorities. INTERPOL’s workshops and events aim to encourage greater regional co-operation and a more co-ordinated response to the threat of bioterrorism.

The programme, now in its third phase, was launched in 2005 with the 1st INTERPOL Global Conference on preventing bioterrorism which took place in Lyon, France, in March 2005. This major international event saw a total of 500 delegates come from 155 countries; the main topics introduced were reinforced during regional workshops organized over the next two years. Other kinds of training sessions to spread awareness include the following:

Train-the-trainer sessions (TTT)

INTERPOL train-the-trainer sessions are organized and delivered in an interactive way with the aim of enhancing countries' capacities to provide their own bioterrorism-preparedness training.  The sessions are organized by region (for a maximum of about 10 participating countries) and are led by a team of experts from various agencies around the world, including law enforcement, policy makers, academics, health-protection agencies and the World Health Organization. One of the priorities is to foster inter-agency co-operation, so ideally a team from each country has four members:

• law enforcement officer dealing with bioterrorism or general CBRN (chemical-biological-radiological-nuclear) incidents;
• representative of a health protection agency;
• laboratory scientist;
• policy makers in CBRN response and resilience.

Train-the-Trainer priorities:

• train trainers;
• identify strategies and resource gaps;
• forge sub-regional communications and co-operation;
• recommend law-reform measures to fill in statutory gaps.

Tabletop exercises (TTEX)

The train-the-trainer sessions are supplemented by tabletop exercises: another kind of interactive activity, in which high-level officials are faced with a fictitious bioterrorism scenario and must work together and think globally to manage the crisis.

For instance, the “Black Death” tabletop exercise is a scenario-driven, facilitated discussion which strives to enhance awareness of roles and capabilities of international organizations and government sectors in bioterrorism preparedness and response, as well as identifying possible gaps or redundancies.  The impact of a tabletop exercise extends far beyond participants’ abilities to respond to a bioterrorism attack since the exercise also aids in preparing for and responding to naturally-occurring disease outbreaks.

Exercise goals and objectives:

• Promote greater cross-sector understanding;
• Increase awareness of participants’ bioterrorism preparedness and response capabilities;
• Identify bioterrorism preparedness and response gaps and redundancies;
• Strengthen communication and relationships among diverse sectors;
• Enhance cross-sector co-ordination and co-operation on a variety of issues such as public information and media relations, resource co-ordination, threat/hazard evaluation, and medical and public health matters.

Training sessions and workshops

TTT = Train the Trainer; TTEX = Tabletop Exercise, RW = Regional Workshop

Recent activities in Phase 3 of the Bioterrorism Prevention Programme (September 2008-2011) apart from workshops:

• A  new national training manual to guide national trainers attending the ‘train the trainer’ sessions, and for them to use in national training modules in their countries was developed (and was used in Abu Dhabi, November 2009);

• The INTERPOL Bioterrorism Incident Preplanning and Response Guide (the BIRG) has been radically revised and updated – publication will take place in early 2010;

• A fellowship programme was instituted in order to provide the opportunity for police officers who have already technical and investigative expertise in bioterrorism prevention to gain a better understanding of the activities of the Programme. In this way, a framework is provided to enhance their ability to develop, implement and/or integrate a bioterrorism prevention and response strategy in their country of origin.

• For INTERPOL members, a biocrimes database has been developed; there is also an e-learning module under construction as part of the INTERPOL Global Learning Centre