Next week the Force will be co-hosting with Interpol the 15th Interpol Symposium for Heads of Police Training. The event opens a new chapter in the history of the Force as it takes on a greater international perspective in its approach towards enhancing individual professional skills and knowledge. The event also underscores the ambition of the Force in attaining international recognition for our Police College as a centre of excellence in police training.

The Symposium will be held between March 15 and 17 at the Auditorium, 8th floor, Police Headquarters and will be attended by around 170 delegates from 55 countries.

OffBeat had a chance to talk to Assistant Commissioner (Training) David Thomas to find out more about this international event and his views about how the Force can contribute to and benefit from knowledge sharing and expertise exchange with the international law enforcement community.

Mr Thomas explained: "It is our belief that better expertise and greater collaboration in training, together with excellent operational and intelligence capabilities, are the key to winning the battle against organised crime and globalised terrorism. This vision of ours accords with Interpol's strategic training approach.

"We hope to collaborate in training and training resources with other countries but first and foremost we wish to put the Force onto the international map of police training, to learn from other countries and to present our learning strategies to the international community."

The Symposium would benefit the development of the College in its quest for excellence in learning. "Through networking with renowned law enforcement learning institutes, we wish to benchmark against international police training standards and establish long term partnerships that will help in the strategic development of the College," he added.

Greater training collaboration

We asked Mr Thomas what Hong Kong has done so far in pushing for greater training collaboration among countries.

"Hong Kong in fact has been a strategic partner of Interpol in hosting international conferences and seminars in Hong Kong over the years. Much of this has been initiated by Crime Wing; for instance we hosted the Asia and South Pacific Region Technology Crime Investigation and Training Seminar in October 2003, the Interpol I-24/7 Global Communications System Training Seminar in January 2004 and the first Interpol Computer Facilitated Crimes Against Children Training Workshop in Asia in November 2004.

"Another major step towards achieving training collaboration was taken when the Commissioner signed a memorandum of understanding with the Singapore Police Force in the sharing of e-learning materials.

"Further, at the 72nd Interpol General Assembly at Benidorm, Spain in 2003, in my keynote speech, I too called for greater international collaboration in training in various areas, including e-learning.

"With the assistance of Interpol, we hope that Hong Kong as the co-ordinator of the Symposium can help set the direction and be able to bring the participating countries together in achieving tangible results in sharing knowledge, experience and expertise and most important of all in sharing training and training resources," Mr Thomas stated.

It is clear that with the establishment of the Police College, the Force will be ready to offer, within available resources, training to the international law enforcement community in selected areas of work.

Strategic level

Working towards international cooperation, the Organising Committee headed by Mr Thomas has steered the Symposium to the strategic level. "Previous symposia were targeted at the working level and at that level they achieved results. However we wish to bring it to the national level, to underline the strategic role of training in contributing to nation-wide operational efficiency and effectiveness.

"With this aim in mind, we have renamed, with the agreement of Interpol, the Symposium as the Symposium for Heads of Police Training," said Mr Thomas. He added that the Symposium was previously titled the Symposium for Heads of Police Colleges, reflecting its focus at the working level.

The Interpol Advance Party that visited Training Wing last December was very impressed with the preparatory work the Organising Committee has done. Mr Adamu Mohammed, Director of NCB Services and I-24/7 Development of Interpol, has this to say, "The work so far done and the good spirit and dedication of your staff whom I met are exemplary."

Mr Thomas attributed the success to-date to the joint effort and close rapport between Interpol and the Force, and in particular the thorough preparatory work undertaken by the Project Team headed by Senior Superintendent Bernie So. Both Interpol and the Force share a common goal to make the upcoming Symposium the most successful one and to set a benchmark for future conferences.

The Symposium, entitled "Building an International Learning Community", features five major themes. They are

* Training solutions to global and organised crime.

* The role of training in crime prevention and crime reduction.

* Professionalisation of police training.

* Towards technology-led training strategies.

* Developing effective modern police managers.

Interpol symposium opens new chapter

Speakers at the Symposium will be renowned police scholars, police training leaders and senior police officers from around the world.

The six keynote speakers are:

* Mr Sun Jiangu, Deputy Director-General, Personnel Training, Ministry of Public Security, PRC,

* Mr Jeremy Travis, the President, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York, USA,

* Ms Lanah Mbulawa, Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police, Botswana Police Service, Botswana,

* Mr Antonine Rossion, Chief Commissioner, Ecole Nationale Superieure de la Police, France,

* Ms Charmaine de Souza, Programme Manager for the Initial Police Learning and Development Programme, Home Office, UK, and

* Mr Victor Lo Yik-kee, Assistant Commissioner (Crime), Hong Kong Police Force.

It is the first time the Symposium has been given a title, and has themes to focus upon, and keynote speeches to highlight world police training issues. The participating countries and participants for this Symposium have far exceeded the last one.

Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble will officially open the Symposium together with Commissioner Lee Ming-kwai. Formations are also sending delegates to this meaningful international training symposium.

Running parallel with the Symposium is the 3rd Learning and Development Exhibition and related seminars, which will be held at the Multi-Purpose Hall on 10th floor, Police Headquarters.

Force members are invited to join this useful exhibition and seminars, which will not only bring updated training information but also share knowledge in issues such as victim psychology, conflict management, handling of day-to-day stress and challenges and experience-sharing on overseas training.