Rwanda, Uganda police forces start joint training

Sixteen officers from Rwanda National Police and Uganda Police Force yesterday began a weeklong training in key areas of crime management. The training, being conducted at RNP General Headquarters in Kacyiru, focuses on critical criminal investigation knowledge and enhancing skills, which subsequently enables prosecution to build strong cases in court.

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Sixteen officers from Rwanda National Police and Uganda Police Force yesterday began a weeklong training in key areas of crime management.

The training, being conducted at RNP General Headquarters in Kacyiru, focuses on critical criminal investigation knowledge and enhancing skills, which subsequently enables prosecution to build strong cases in court.

It is organised and conducted under a framework between RNP and Germany Federal Criminal Police, and it follows similar crime scene investigation trainings conducted previously.

The RNP acting Commissioner for Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Jean Marie Twagirayezu, while officiating at the opening of the training on behalf of the Inspector General of Police, said continuous training of police officers in various fields such as criminal investigations and traffic inspections will help RNP achieve its vision of "people in Rwanda are safe, involved and reassured.”

Crime scenes investigators collect, identify, classify, and analyse physical evidence related to criminal investigations.

"Documentation of physical evidence at scene of crime is a prerequisite to improving rates of convictions and justice,” said Twagirayezu.

He encouraged participants to utilise the opportunity to grasp as much information as possible for better management of justice processes.

"After this training, you should be able to link a suspect or victim to the scene of crime, establish the identity of the victim or suspect, corroborate witness testimonies and exonerate the innocent,” he said.

Joshua Mulwanyi, one of the participants from Uganda, said "such advanced training helps ensure justice by not allowing criminals to evade justice through erasing of evidence.”

"No criminal can escape justice with this level of crime scene scanning and processing,” Mulwanyi said.

Another trainee, Vincent Mugabo, from RNP, expressed confidence in the course content noting that it will enable him improve his skills and be able to appropriately link physical evidence collected from the scene of crime to suspects.

According to Rüdiger Stransk, one of the trainers from Germany Federal Criminal Police, participants will be availed with crime scene processing field tools at the end of the course.

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