Gender parity: Women officers to learn new crime-fighting techniques

IGP encourages female officers to opt for fields positions.

LAHORE: The inspector general of police (IGP), Javed Iqbal, inaugurated the Women’s Campus at the Police Training School, Chuhng on Thursday. The campus will offer the Advanced Investigation Course (AIC) for the first time for female police officers.

The campus is to provide female police officers of various ranks with training using the latest international standard techniques. There are 20 police officers attending the first five week long AIC.

The campus has been established by the Gender Responsive Policing Project (GRP) funded by Germany’s foreign office. It is a joint venture of Deutsche Gesellschaft fur International Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and Pakistan’s National Police Bureau.

The campus has a forensics laboratory with the ability for DNA matching, finger print lifting and different ways of collecting evidence from a crime scene.

An interrogation room has been set up to teach officers different interrogation techniques.

Training will also be given in cordoning and reconstructing crime scenes and maintaining the integrity of the evidence collected. The classrooms are equipped with modern teaching facilities.

The IGP met the officers taking the AIC and appreciated the efforts of their trainers and the cooperation of the GIZ personnel. He encouraged the trainees to opt for field positions and contribute to effective policing.

GRP-GIZ principal advisor Dr Khola Iram that for women to enter the mainstream of policing it was imperative they be equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills. The Women’s Campus, she said, was a big step in achieving those goals.

Dr Iram added that the officers would benefit greatly if the IGP could ensure that qualified women officers taking the course be assigned to regular police stations.

Thomas Schaef, country director of GIZ, said the establishment of the campus and the launch of the training programme were two significant milestones.

They will go far in promoting a culture focusing on developing capacity of women in the police department. He added that the AIC would showcase model training and the campus provided a learning environment that others would want to duplicate.

The second political and economics secretary Ferdinanat Jenrich, of the German Embassy, said the exclusive women’s campus was to provide training infrastructure for female officers and promote the equal access to advanced and specialised training opportunities.

A statement issued by GIZ said that its goal was for the National Police Bureau to develop and implement policies to combat violence against women. It said that the gender crime centre must be strengthened taking principles of the rule of law and gender equality into consideration.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 28^th, 2011.