Participants of a CEPOL Course 21/2017 helped to disclose criminal acts on child sexual exploitation

‘Child sexual exploitation – victim identification’ was the subject of an international course organized in cooperation with Interpol and Europol at The School Police in Piła, Poland on 18 – 29 September. The aim of the course was to enhance cooperation between law enforcement institutions from EU Member States, Associate countries and Candidate countries in the identification of child victims of sexual exploitation, and to create or improve skills of specialised law enforcement officers in the task of victim identification at a national and international level.

29 participants and 7 experts from over 25 countries took part in the course.

Thanks to the involvement of outstanding experts from France, Canada, England, Australia and the Netherlands, the participants practically gained proficiency in the searching for cyberspace victims of sexual exploitation and their subsequent identification. Worth to mention that this allowed during practice exercises to disclose material and criminal activity reported to the police departments of the respective countries to consolidate evidence and detain perpetrators.

They had an unique opportunity to participate in lectures concerned:

• Victim ID & the background;

• Sources of CAM, Images – Visual and Contextual;

• Pro-active Investigations;

• Practical VID;

• Live Data Analysis;

• Images – Digital;

• Open source Investigation;

• Welfare;

• Investigation Standards;

• CAM Offending;

• Triage Practical.

During the study visit at the Police Headquarter in Poznan participant of the course were familiarized with the scope of activities of the Department for Combating Cybercrime.

Lieutenant Adriana Niemczuk-Gorgoń, manager of above mentioned course, summarized:

”The course was one of the most ambitious courses I have had the honour of attending. From the course manager’s point of view I can add that not only trainers, but also participants had opportunity to share their knowledge and experiences. I find this course very helpful and effective in the identification of sexual abusement victims. We would like to have more opportunities to organize courses such as this one”.