Iraqi Police Graduate From Advanced, Specialty Courses

The courses consist of Basic Criminal Investigations with 47 graduates, Interviews and Interrogations with 23 graduates, Violent Crime Investigation with 22 graduates, Critical Incident Management with 21 graduates, Criminal Intelligence with 22 graduates, Election Security with 73 graduates, Mid-Level Management with 10 graduates and Executive Leadership Development with 13 graduates.

The Basic Criminal Investigation course, designed to introduce participants to basic concepts of criminal investigation, covers topics such as theft, burglary, arson, robbery, sexual offenses, and homicide investigation. Students receive classroom instruction and hands-on training in fingerprinting, photography, tool marks and plaster casting techniques. More than 2,500 police officers have completed the Basic Criminal Investigations course.

The Interviews and Interrogations course covers advanced interview and interrogation techniques and includes instruction on the preservation and protection of human rights, and the importance of ethical behavior during interviews and interrogations. To date, 649 students have completed this course.

Violent Crime Investigation introduces participants to investigative techniques to be used in a variety of situations, but particularly in violent crimes including armed robbery, rape and murder. This course has graduated 660 students to date.

Critical Incident Management is designed to provide participants with the understanding of and application skills for managing critical incidents. This course has previously graduated 607 students.

The Criminal Intelligence course provides training in the planning, collection, analysis and distribution of intelligence information. This course also equips participants with the ability to recognize trends that may have an impact on public safety and security. This course has graduated 438 students to date.

The Election Security course covers the responsibilities of the police to ensure peaceful elections. Potential threats and areas of concern are examined from the standpoint of security and protection of candidates and the voting public during the election period. To date, 519 officers have completed the course. The course includes a "train the trainers" component to enable participants to serve as trainers in their respective police stations.

Mid-Level Management is a course designed for supervisors who are responsible for managing the first line supervisors and their assigned personnel. To date, 422 students have previously graduated this course.

Executive Leadership covers executive level concepts of planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting and budgeting. Other topics include visionary leadership, organizational values, interpersonal communication skills, motivational techniques and strategies, along with strategic planning. To date, 372 officers have previously graduated from this course.

Officers who participated in these courses previously completed either an eight-week basic training course for new recruits or a three-week "transitional integration program" course designed for prior-service officers.

The police officers report back for continued duty at their respective stations immediately.

(Courtesy of Multinational Security Transition Command Iraq.)