A group of law enforcement personnel recently undertook a course in battlefield evidence collection. The training, organised by the NATO Stability Policing Centre (NATO SP COE) in Vicenza, Italy, was focused on counter-terrorism. It aimed to provide tactical units (both law enforcement and military) with basic skills and knowledge in incident scene preservation and in managing and collecting information and material. In particular, it focused on how these practices can strengthen the ability of civilian criminal justice actors to investigate, prosecute and adjudicate terrorism cases.
The course was funded by the US Department of State and took place from 29 November to 3 December. Participants came from NATO partner countries Algeria, Bahrain, Jordan, and Tunisia.
Footage includes attendees listening to a lecture and participating in evidence collection exercises. Also included are soundbites with the Director of the NATO SP COE Colonel Giuseppe De Magistris and James Spencley, Digital Forensic Subject Matter Expert and Identity Activities Team Lead at
Southern European Task Force-Africa.
Transcript
(00:00) WIDE SHOT – GENERAL VIEW OF VICENZA, ITALY.
(00:04) VARIOUS SHOTS – NATO STABILITY POLICING CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE SIGN IN VICENZA AND NATO FLAG.
(00:13) MEDIUM SHOT – A POLICE OFFICER FROM BAHRAIN ATTENDING LECTURE
(00:17) VARIOUS SHOTS – POLICE OFFICERS FROM JORDAN ATTENDING LECTURE
(00:24) VARIOUS SHOTS – POLICE OFFICERS FROM BAHRAIN ATTENDING LECTURE
(00:32) VARIOUS SHOTS - A MEMBER OF THE POLISH CENTRAL FORENSIC LABORATORY OF THE POLICE ATTENDING LECTURE
(00:40) CLOSE SHOT - A MEMBER OF THE ITALIAN CARABINIERI INVESTIGATION SCIENTIFICHE TEAM ATTENDING LECTURE
(00:44) CLOSE SHOT - POLICE OFFICER FROM JORDAN ATTENDING LECTURE
(00:48) VARIOUS SHOTS - A MEMBER OF THE ITALIAN CARABINIERI INVESTIGATION SCIENTIFICHE TEAM CONDUCTING LECTURE
(00:58) CLOSE SHOT – SCAN OF FINGERPRINT ON SCREEN
(01:02) WIDE SHOT – ATTENDEES IN LECTURE
(01:05) CLOSE SHOT – A POLICE OFFICER FROM JORDAN IN LECTURE
(01:11) CLOSE SHOT – AN OFFICER FROM THE CZECH REPUBLIC AND MEMBER OF NATO’s EDUCATION TRAINING AND EXERCISE BRANCH ATTENDING LECTURE
(01:16) WIDE SHOT – STUDENTS DISCUSSING A MOCK-UP CRIME SCENE SHOWING A MANNEQUIN ON THE FLOOR
(01:19) VARIOUS SHOTS – BULLET CASING ON THE FLOOR
(01:27) VARIOUS SHOTS – COURSE ATTENDEES EXAMINING AND GATHERING EVIDENCE
(02:35) VARIOUS SHOTS – MOCK-UP CRIME SCENE SHOWING MANNEQUIN ON THE GROUND BEING INSPECTED BY COURSE ATTENDEES
(03:03) VARIOUS SHOTS – COURSE ATTENDEES COLLECTING AND ANALYSING EVIDENCE
(04:31) SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) – COLONEL GIUSEPPE DE MAGISTRIS, DIRECTOR, NATO STABILITY POLICING CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE
“The training is about battlefield evidence collection, so about how to deal with possible evidence found on the battlefields. So it is aimed at providing the students with the basic skills to ensure the chain of custody, to ensure that the future evidence are brought before the justice in order to investigate, to prosecute and possibly adjudicate the cases against terrorists.”
(05:03) SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) – COLONEL GIUSEPPE DE MAGISTRIS, DIRECTOR, NATO STABILITY POLICING CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE
“This course is aimed at bringing together the law enforcement world with the military world. Sometimes they are apart. This time they are not. This is even the aim of stability policing, which makes the interoperability the epitome of their activities. That said, it's important, very important to bridge the gap between the military and the law enforcement world and this is what stability policing is aiming at.”
(05:32) SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) – COLONEL GIUSEPPE DE MAGISTRIS, DIRECTOR, NATO STABILITY POLICING CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE
“So by providing the trainees with the basic skills on the ground to collect evidence, NATO ensures through its cooperative security endeavour that the beneficial countries will have some basic tools to fight terrorism, but ultimately to bring before justice terrorists. What we want to achieve is the adjudication of the court case not only investigate and prosecute, but you know, we have to neutralise them by putting them in jail.”
(06:07) SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) – JAMES SPENCLEY, DIGITAL FORENSIC SUBJECT MATTER EXPERT AND IDENTITY ACTIVITIES TEAM LEAD AT SOUTHERN EUROPEAN TASK FORCE-AFRICA.
“Battlefield evidence is anything that's collected on an objective. So, for example, if a military unit conducts an operation and after that operation, there's certain evidence that's left on the battlefield, whether that be cell phones, whether there'll be documents, computers, DNA, fingerprints - all this is battlefield evidence. And what we're teaching today is how to collect that evidence in a way that maximises the prosecution value of it.”
(06:33) SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) – JAMES SPENCLEY, DIGITAL FORENSIC SUBJECT MATTER EXPERT AND IDENTITY ACTIVITIES TEAM LEAD AT SOUTHERN EUROPEAN TASK FORCE-AFRICA.
“So the evidence is valuable to both sides, so on the military side, from an intelligence perspective, this battlefield evidence is extremely important. It helps us find follow on targets and helps us to develop other intel, other intel products for use. Sharing that with the military or with the police side, the civilian police side, helps the prosecution process.”
(07:00) SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) – JAMES SPENCLEY, DIGITAL FORENSIC SUBJECT MATTER EXPERT AND IDENTITY ACTIVITIES TEAM LEAD AT SOUTHERN EUROPEAN TASK FORCE-AFRICA.
“Not only do we want the intelligence value of this, we also want to be able to put these people away so they don't create more problems down the road.”
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