Inter-American school of public security is created

High-level police and civil officials in the Americas would have the opportunity to take courses on public policy design and management in matters of public safety as part of a new initiative promoted by the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States that has the goal of strengthening public security in the hemisphere.

The "School of Higher Learning on Public Security" will begin a pilot stage in 2010 with its main objective to offer a graduate-level, four-month course on management in public security. During a second stage, it would offer a master’s degree on the same and related subjects.

"What we are looking for is to strengthen the management ability of police institutions, to strengthen the link between political power and police institutions, and to help develop management abilities to address issues related to public safety, such as gangs, drug trafficking and violence in all its forms, while at the same time helping to ensure proper workability with prison systems, justice systems and other actors like private security," said a high-level official with the Department of Public Safety of the OAS.

This new initiative has no precedent in the hemisphere and has awakened high expectations in national and international public security agencies.

Coronel Nelson Ramírez Suárez, Director of the Police Academy of Higher Learning of Colombia, said this inter-American learning effort will lead to the unification of criteria in the formation of future police officials. "All police will benefit from this," he said. "We’re going to speak one language, we’re going to share the same criteria, the same philosophy." Coronel Ramírez also explained that it is necessary to "train not only police but civil servants, because it’s important they, too, be aware of the responsibility they share in matters of security."

Coronel Ramírez is one of various high-level officers and officials who collaborated with the OAS in its proposal for the School of Public Security, which will be a key topic during the Second Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Public Security in the Americas (known by its Spanish acronym, MISPA II) on November 4 and 5, 2009, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Mr. Rafael Peña Hernández, Specialized Regional Officer of OIPC-INTERPOL, the largest police organization in the world, also collaborated with the OAS in this project. "We have begun a very important process for the security of America," he said of the School. "We are very excited about this task. It’s going to standardize police management in various countries."

The OAS will sponsor the course, which is to be offered in at least three countries, with the dual objective of training officers and public officials in the management of public security while giving them the opportunity of learning from current realities in countries other than their own.

A study of feasibility carried out this year by the OAS Department of Public Security based on a mandate from the First Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Public Security in the Americas (MISPA) shows a lack of training in subjects of management, leadership, administration, accountability and transparency in public security in some regional governments.

The Department of Public Security of the Secretariat for Multidimensional Security promotes public policies on security, legislation and programs of technical assistance in the OAS Member States, and is a forum seeking to promote analysis and reflection on new threats to public security in the hemisphere. The first MISPA was held in October 2008 in Mexico City, Mexico.

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