Colombia: ICITAP Helps Colombian National Police and Attorney General’s Office Strengthen Capacity to Solve Criminal Cases

From October 28, 2024, to November 1, ICITAP, with support and funding from the U.S. Department of State Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), trained 19 officials from the Colombian National Police (CNP) and the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) Technical Investigations Corps (CTI) in the planning to solve criminal cases course. This training was designed to enhance the performance of Criminal Investigators, strengthen the skills, expertise, and values necessary to resolve cases through the discovery, identification, assessment, collection, preservation, and presentation of material evidence (EMP), physical evidence, and legally obtained information, within criminal processes under current legislation and best professional practices. The objectives of the course were: 1) Utilize the fundamentals of the role as a criminal investigator to address professional situations; 2) Decide whether to initiate a criminal investigation based on a presented situation; 3) Plan criminal investigations using the "Strategic Criminal Investigation Planning" tool (PEIC). The 19 participants three females and sixteen males are assigned to the prioritized areas of the project investigating Homicides (11), Sexual Violence (5), Kidnapping and Extortion (2), and Environmental Crimes (1).