U.S. Senator Ken Salazar

Member of the Agriculture, Energy and Veterans Affairs Committees

 

2300 15th Street, Suite 450 Denver, CO 80202 | 702 Hart Senate Building, Washington, D.C. 20510

 

 

For Immediate Release

April 6, 2005

CONTACT:    Cody Wertz – Press Secretary

                        202-228-3630

Jen Clanahan – Deputy Press Secretary

                        303-455-7600

 

SEN. SALAZAR BOLSTERS ACCOUNTABILITY AND TRAINING FOR INTERNATIONAL POLICE FORCES
EFFORTS MEANT TO ENSURE DRAG ON U.S. FORCES REDUCED

WASHINGTON, DC – United States Senator Ken Salazar today obtained Senate approval of his amendment to S. 600, the State Department authorization bill, to ensure standards for the foreign police we train and to ensure we are training foreign police departments with experienced and professional personnel. Salazar’s amendment also increases accountability in the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) by requiring them to report back to Congress the success or viability of State Department trained foreign police departments.

Senator Salazar said, “One of the principal goals of the INL is to train foreign counties’ police departments to be able to control drug trafficking and terrorist threats themselves,” said Salazar. “If that is the goal we should have standards in place to ensure we are training legitimate police officers, our trainers are professional and experienced, and that the forces we train remain intact and effective.”

“Investments in training and accountability work for 14,000 law enforcement officers in Colorado – we should look to do the same thing internationally.”

Senator Salazar’s amendment will require the INL to:

• Train individuals for police duty whose backgrounds have been vetted;

• Use only proven, experienced law enforcement professionals who have passed an extensive criminal and experience background check as trainers;

• Report to Congress at the end of each Fiscal Year on attrition rates of the police forces and viability of the force itself as well as other job performance indicators;

• Create a 10-member blue-ribbon advisory panel, at least four of whom are experienced American law enforcement personnel, to advise INL on the cost efficiency and professional efficacy of police and security training programs.

Senator Salazar said of the passing of his amendment, “We should be certain that the drug trafficking and terror threat forces we are training in places like Afghanistan are accomplishing the jobs we trained them to do – this eases the burden on the men and women in our armed forces and moves the host country towards greater self-sufficiency.”

State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) (http://www.state.gov/g/inl/) has trained mid- and senior-level prosecutors, judicial and law enforcement officials from 50 countries including Afghanistan, Colombia, Thailand and Nigeria. Programs with INL have helped target narcotics production and transfer, civilian police training, anti-corruption efforts, human smuggling and trafficking and financial scams as well as funding international law enforcement training programs at academies located in Hungary, Thailand, Botswana, and Roswell, NM. The INL has an annual budget of just over $1 billion, more than half of which is dedicated to anti-drug efforts in South America.

# # #