Supporting police training in Asia focus of INTERPOL meeting

ASAN CITY, Republic of Korea – Bridging the gap between national and international police training efforts was the focus of an INTERPOL meeting in Korea.

INTERPOL brought together the Heads of Police Academies in South and Southeast Asia to discuss partnership opportunities to addressing the security challenges of the region.

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The first ever regional INTERPOL meeting for Heads of Police Academies in countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) aimed to strengthen police academies in the region.

Bringing together 15 senior police officers from 13 countries, the 25 June meeting addressed the security challenges of the region and discussed ways forward and partnership opportunities. It also provided an opportunity to help law enforcement agencies make maximum use of INTERPOL’s policing capabilities in their fight against transnational crime and terrorism.

The participants adopted a set of key points and recommendations, including the need to focus future training efforts on cybercrime and counter-terrorism. Additionally, the implementation of new training delivery methods and increased collaboration between regional law enforcement training institutions were highlighted as ways to optimize resources and expertise.

Participating countries recognized the key role of INTERPOL in addressing the challenges of the current security landscape, in particular through the development of state-of-the-art training curricula, the upgrading of equipment and the facilitation of operational cooperation across police training institutions regionally and globally.

The meeting was organized under the framework of INTERPOL’s Project Scorpius, a two-year counter-terrorism and related transnational crime capacity building project funded by the Government of Canada.

“This is a crucial element of INTERPOL’s capacity building and training strategy, which aims to reinforce partnerships with regional law enforcement training partners through a decentralized approach to training delivery,” said INTERPOL’s Director of Capacity Building and Training, Harold O’Connell.

“Together, we are designing the future of INTERPOL’s partnership with police academies, not only in the region but worldwide,” he concluded.

Countries participating in the meeting were Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Timor Leste and Vietnam.