CEPOL course 31/2018 Identification of child victim sexual exploitation

Identification of child victims of sexual exploitation (CSE) was the subject of a CEPOL international course (31/2018) organized in cooperation with Interpol and Europol at The Police School in Piła, Poland on 03 – 14 September. It was the second edition of this course that the school in Piła had the opportunity to organize. The aim of the course – as last year – 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.

28 participants and 11 experts from over 24 countries took part in the course. Thanks to the involvement of outstanding experts from Europol, Interpol, Toronto Police Service and Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Canada, UK National Crime Agency - Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command and Poland the participants practically gained proficiency in the searching for cyberspace victims of sexual exploitation and their subsequent identification.

Participants had an unique opportunity to participate in lectures concerned:

• Sources of CAM, Images – Visual and Contextual;
• Pro-active Investigations;
• Practical VID;
• Live Data Analysis;
• Images – Digital;
• Triage Practical.

Captain Adriana Niemczuk-Gorgoń, manager of the CEPOL courses at the Police School in Piła, summarised the course: "I'm honoured that we had the chance to organise this course for the second time. Invited experts have once again made an effort to make the course valuable not only in terms of content. They are great people who are a team of excellent professionals but also friends. What’s more important they created not only excellent training conditions but possibilities of making new friends".

The Police School in Piła was established on September 1954. In 1960, the school began training investigative-operational officers, which gave a rise to a criminal specialization of the school, and it’s still famous for. At present the school educates officers from all over the country at the basic and criminal courses. Since 2017 we have organised four Cepol courses, as we want to stay up to date with the worldwide criminal problems that people have to deal with every day and to contribute to preventing these crimes.

The course ended on 14th September with a closing ceremony and the handing of certificates.