The United Nations Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNLIREC), in collaboration with the Government of Dominican Republic, carried out an Inter-institutional Roundtable to Enhance Firearms-related Investigations on February 18 and the Ballistic Intelligence Management Course from February 19 to 21. Both activities form part of the ‘Combating Illicit Firearms and Ammunition Trafficking in the Caribbean through Operational Forensic Ballistics’ (OFB) project.
During the Inter-institutional Roundtable to Enhance Firearms-related Investigations, UNLIREC addressed the findings presented in the report from the last Inter-institutional Roundtable Meeting celebrated in July 2019. In addition, National Authorities presented the advances made regarding inter-institutional coordination as well as identified shortcomings that required further collaboration. A total of 16 officials from National Institute of Forensic Sciences, Ministry of the Interior and Police, Special Prosecutor´s Office against Trafficking of Firearms, Ballistic and Biometric Laboratory, National Police, Customs and Ministry of Defense participated in the event.
From 19-21 February, UNLIREC implemented its pilot training course in Ballistic Intelligence Management for the first time in the region at the Institute of Criminology in the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo. A total of 23 officials from National Institute of Forensic Sciences, Ministry of the Interior and Police, Special Prosecutor´s Office against Trafficking of Firearms Office, Ballistic and Biometric Laboratory, National Police, Customs and Ministry of Defense participated.
The 3-day training course covered modules on Firearms and Ammunition identification and classification, Chain of Custody, Sources of Ballistic information, Ballistic information management and analysis and Ballistic Intelligence. Lectures included theoretical instruction as well as practical exercises which allowed participants to put into practice the knowledge gained during the training.
Participants highlighted the importance of having specialized and continuous training to improve their ability to carry out firearm- related criminal investigations.
This course was possible thanks to the financial support of the Government of the United States of America.