OSCE Annual Meeting of the Focal Points of Police Academies Network

Good practices, challenges and lessons learned in law enforcement training and education, in particular with regard to the impact of modern technology and the role of women, is the focus of the second meeting of OSCE Police Academies Network (PAN), which brought together more than 40 participants to Vienna on 20 November 2019.

“Digitalization has transformed many aspects of our life, including professional education and training,” said Roman Gajdosech, representative of the Slovak OSCE Chairmanship. “To maximize the benefits of new innovative tools offered by modern technologies, co-operation and collaboration among law enforcement training institutions – be it online or offline – through networks such as PAN is essential.”

Guy Vinet, head of OSCE Transnational Threats Department’s Strategic Police Matters Unit (SPMU), added: “Our societies are evolving with more and more engagement of women and efforts towards gender equality. This has to be reflected in police forces and therefore in police training and education.”

Launched by the SPMU in June 2018, PAN aims at promoting and facilitating international co-operation in law enforcement training and education.

The pilot phase of the project started in early 2017, when an online platform was made available to a number of law enforcement education and training institutions in OSCE participating States. The platform was created on the OSCE’s POLIS e-platform and it offered a complete overview of education and training sources, facilitating the exchange and mutual use of existing resources, including curricula, modules, training material and expertise within law enforcement training institutions in the OSCE area.

Since its inception, the PAN has been intended as a complementary tool to the Law Enforcement Training Network – LE TrainNet Initiative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. In addition, PAN also co-operates with INTERPOL and the EU Agency for Law Enforcement Training (CEPOL).