27 law enforcement officials trained in Italy on Undercover Operations

Organised by the Italian Framework Partner École Universitaire Internationale, CEPOL course 71/2024 on undercover operations took place in Pordenone (Italy) from 19 to 22 November 2024. It focused on strengthening efforts against organised crime by enhancing undercover operations and international cooperation to tackle cross border crime.

27 law enforcement officials from EU Members States, candidate and associated countries attended this 4-day training activity to enhance their knowledge on improving undercover agents’ cognitive capabilities in adapting to different environments and reducing negative outcomes impacting those involved with the operation, as well as special features of ethnic and clan based Organised Crime Groups (OCGs).

Some of the topics addressed during the Course included:

• The Psych-Evolving© method, a new method developed to augment brain capabilities of Law Enforcement operators.
• Special features of the Arabic (Moroccan and Syrian) and Chinese criminal activities, their criminal organisations and how they commit crimes and collect funds, so as to better counteract their actions.
• Emerging threats in Europe that can affect undercover operations.
• The new generation of undercover operations, including new challenges and ways to overcome them. Also, the following topics were discussed: protected financial tools, housing, cover documents, cover narrative and technological challenges and technical equipment.
• Applying innovative training methods addressing neuropsychological techniques that operators can apply to improve their cognitive capabilities and reduce physiological interferences and stress factors.
• Understanding operators’ biases and how they can interfere with the success of the operation, as well as addressing important tools when selecting and training operators with the aim to improve their overall performance.

The learning environment was carefully designed to create the most suitable conditions for a meaningful and long-term connection among participants and experts from different European countries. The course approached the different topics in a practical way. Participants shared their experiences with colleagues and discussed real case studies and challenges also related to long-term undercover operations. Both during the lessons and the networking time, a facilitator helped participants gain a global overview of the topics addressed.

Course participants highlighted that the most useful elements about this course had been “sharing experiences and all sections of the course covering practical advice/topics about how to improve skills and brain capabilities to perform better undercover operations”, as well as “the approach of the human brain and the role that several highlighted factors can play for the proper preparation of the agent for a successful operation”.