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By 2nd Lt. Dominic Pitrone
Twenty students from the Belize Police Department graduated a week-long crime scene investigation class provided by the Naval Criminal Investigation Service April 16.
The training is conducted for Tradewinds 2010, a Chairman of the Joint Chiefs directed, U.S. Southern Command sponsored annual exercise that is conducted with 15 Caribbean Basin Partner Nations, designed to improve cooperation with the partner nations in responding to regional security threats.
As part of Tradewinds 2010 training, NCIS brought a team of instructors to the Belize Police Department in Belmopan, Belize to teach crime scene investigation.
The CSI training is being offered in response to a request from the Belizean government as it battles a growing crime rate.
The training is being offered for two consecutive weeks to groups of 20 students. This graduation ceremony marks the end of the first week of training.
"This is the 26th year of Tradewinds in the past it has been mostly military training, but in the past few years we have heard growing requests for law enforcement training." said Marine Corps, Lt. Col. Trent Blackson, the Tradewinds 2010 Exercise Director.
The CSI training provided by NCIS is a response to a need in Belize for law enforcement training.
"Belize welcomes the NCIS community and we look forward to continued training opportunities." said Crispin Jefferies the Commissioner of Police, "the coordination of this training is timely and needed. The training is a step in the right direction, this capability is needed."
The class was made up of 13 Belize Police, 5 members of the Belize Coast Guard, a student from the Belize Central Prison and a representative from the Belize National Forensic Sciences service.
"The police department, the scenes of crime unit, the forensic department, the coast guard and the prison department all working together as one, I thought it would never work." said Shernadine Peters, a basic crime scene technician from Belize City, Belize. "In order to combat this heightened crime wave that's upon us we will need to practice the same kind of good relationship out in the real world."
The "good relationship" was reflected by the officials in attendance at the graduation ceremony.
The officials in attendance were; Commissioner of Police, Crispin Jeffries, Marine Corps, Lt. Col. Trent Blackson, the Exercise Director for Tradewinds 2010, The NCIS Special-Agent-in-charge of the South East Field office, Carol Kisthardt, the Superintendent of the Belize Police Department Training academy, Sandra Bowden, the Head of the Scenes of Crime Unit, Gaspar Sanches, the Chief analyst of National Forensic Science Services Genoveva Marin and the Commander of the Belize Coast Guard, Captain John Borland.
| Date Taken: | 04.22.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 04.22.2010 11:27 |
| Story ID: | 48520 |
| Location: | PRICE BARRACKS, BZ |
| Web Views: | 552 |
| Downloads: | 365 |
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