07/02/2024

Christopher McMurray, Senior Law Enforcement Advisor of Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) that operates within the USA Embassy in BiH, paid a visit to the Agency for Education and Professional Training today.

At a meeting with the Agency's management staff  led by Director Marko Vujević  two main topics were discussed: IADLEST recertification and lack of capacities for the education of police officers.

The Agency for Education and Professional Training has been the holder of IADLEST certificate (International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training) since 2020, which is a recognition and proof that it fulfills the international training standards and standards for operation of police academies. The AEPTM recertification according to IADLEST standards began in 2022 when the Agency submitted the required documents to INL (53 standards covering the issues of statutory and regulatory alignment, mutual assistance agreements and policies, human resources issues, work procedures, facilities, records keeping, planning and implementation of trainings, students, IT, fiscal issues and equipment). The INL delegation is expected to visit the Agency this year to establish the facts in the Agency and draft the final assessment in the course of two days of the basic training programme that will be in progress.

The second topic of the working meeting was about a lack of capacities for the education of cadets from the lower government levels such as cantonal MoIs at the Police Academy in Sarajevo. McMurray inquired about the legal possibilities for the education of police cadets from the stated institutions in the Agency for Education and Professional Training, and whether the Agency has sufficient capacity to meet such a demand.

Director Vujević referred to the legal mandate according to which the Agency is in charge of providing education and professional development and training courses for cadets and police officers of the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA), Border Police of BiH, and Directorate for Coordination of Police Bodies. He stated that the Agency, at the periods when it had available capacities,  used to receive the cadets of cantonal MoIs and Brčko District and carry out basic police training courses by the tailored curricula. The Agency, Vujević said, will remain open for cooperation, but the priority is still going to be receiving and educating police officers from the state-level police agencies as foreseen in the law.