From:TheBahamasWeekly.com
OAS Highlights AMERIPOL’s Role in Fighting Organized Crime in the Region
Jan 16, 2014 - 6:15:18 PM
The
Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José
Miguel Insulza, today highlighted the role played by the American Police
Community (AMERIPOL) among the police forces of the region to
coordinate efforts in the fight against organized crime during the
inauguration ceremony in San José, Costa Rica, of the new president of
the institution, Commissioner Juan José Andrade.
"Throughout his six years of fruitful work, this voluntary association of police institutions that is AMERIPOL
has grown into an institution of great importance for coordination and
capacity building of the police in our hemisphere," said the OAS
Secretary General during his participation Wednesday afternoon in the
inauguration ceremony.
During the event, attended by the President of Costa Rica, Laura
Chinchilla, Secretary General Insulza recalled that the OAS and AMERIPOL
signed in 2011 a cooperation agreement in order to "promote and
coordinate initiatives to develop and strengthen the capacity of the
institutions responsible for ensuring the safety of the citizens in the
states of the Hemisphere." He said the agreement allowed AMERIPOL to
have two representatives in OAS headquarters in Washington, DC, which
allows for "better coordination with the police forces of the region."
The head of the OAS said that the hemispheric institution and
AMERIPOL share the goal of enhancing and improving the capacity of law
enforcement institutions in order to strengthen public security in the
region. "For many years the OAS has warned about the great threat posed
by transnational organized crime. This adversary does not recognize
borders or nationalities, it coordinates its transnational activities
with high efficiency and uses new and increasingly sophisticated
technological capabilities," he said. To be able to successfully
confront the gangs of organized transnational crime -he added- the
police forces of the region must work with some degree of coordination
and above all "be uniform in their capabilities."
Secretary General Insulza also said the OAS, through the
Department of Public Safety, and with the technical support of AMERIPOL,
"developed the program of the Inter-American Network for Police Development and Professionalization
that aims to reduce asymmetries between our police forces." In this
regard, he said that "a cornerstone of the network is based on police
training competency and promoting professional development, that is,
police training based on the production of competencies and specific
professional skills derived from occupational tasks and basic tasks
specific to police groups and specialties, always tending to a dynamic
and continuously updated training." He also emphasized that the police
should receive ongoing training to master "the use of technological
tools, leveraging the newest knowledge about criminal modalities so that
intelligence -the ability to solve the problems that arise- is the main
weapon for the prevention and investigation of crimes."
In addition, Secretary General Insulza said the OAS, in compliance
with the mandate received from the Fourth Meeting of Ministers
Responsible for Public Security in the Americas (MISPA IV) -which was
held in Colombia in late 2013 - , initiated a legal, technical and
budgetary analysis to identify and define a path for AMERIPOL to become
part of the Inter-American System. "We hope that, on the basis of this
report, the states of the Americas can make an informed decision about
the possibilities of changing the legal status of the American Police
Community in relation to the Inter-American System," said the Secretary
General, adding that the report will be delivered to the Ministers of
Public Security in the Americas.
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