Exchange programme brochure 2017 : educate, innovate, motivate.
Date: 2018-08-22
Institutions: European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Training
Subjects: CEPOL, EU police cooperation, fight against crime, labour mobility, operation of the Institutions, vocational training

Exchange Programme brochure 2017

EDUCATE, INNOVATE, MOTIVATE

Manuscript completed in June 2018

We would like to express our gratitude to the participants of the Exchange Programme 2017 who shared 
with us their experiences and photos for the production of this publication.

Neither CEPOL nor any person acting on behalf of CEPOL is responsible for the use that might be made 
of the following information.

Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2018

Print

ISBN 978-92-9211-316-2

doi:10.2825/83285

QR-06-17-459-EN-C

PDF

ISBN 978-92-9211-315-5

doi:10.2825/437295 QR-06-17-459-EN-N

© CEPOL, 2018

Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged.
For any use or reproduction of photos or other material that is not under the CEPOL copyright, permission 
must be sought directly from the copyright holders.

Exchange Programme brochure 2017

EDUCATE, INNOVATE, MOTIVATE

CONTENTS

Message from the CEPOL Executive Director 
About the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Training 
About the CEPOL Exchange Programme 
CEPOL Exchange Programme (CEP) 2017 
Conclusions 
Narrative reports 

Participants from Albania 
Participants from Armenia 
Participants from Austria 
Participants from Belgium 
Participants from Bosnia and Herzegovina 
Participants from Bulgaria 
Participants from Croatia 
Participants from Cyprus 
Participants from the Czech Republic 
Participants from Estonia 
Participants from Finland 
Participants from France 
Participants from Georgia 
Participants from Germany 
Participants from Greece 
Participants from Hungary 
Participants from Ireland 
Participants from Italy 
Participants from Kosovo 
Participants from Latvia 
Participants from Lithuania 
Participants from Luxembourg 
Participants from Malta 
Participants from Moldova 
Participants from Montenegro 
Participants from the Netherlands 
Participants from Poland 
Participants from Portugal 
Participants from Romania 
Participants from Serbia 
Participants from Slovakia 
Participants from Slovenia 
Participants from Spain 
Participants from Ukraine 

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Exchange Programme brochure 2017Message from the CEPOL Executive Director

2017 was the first full year of implementation of CEPOL’s new legal mandate, which entered into force 
on 1 July 2016 (1). CEPOL was extremely effective in the redeployment and use of its lean resources, and 
yet again was able to deliver more training to more law enforcement officials, outperforming itself in the 
number of trained officials when compared to previous years. The areas of training needs assessment, 
training coordination, and qualitative delivery attest to a successful year for the agency.

In 2017 CEPOL’s training continued to address the needs of the law enforcement community in key 
EU security threat areas such as terrorism, serious and organised crime, cybercrime and cybersecurity, 
as well as migrant smuggling. Our agency was particularly active, completing 208 different training 
activities, attended by more than 23 000 law enforcement officials. The high quality of CEPOL’s work is 
confirmed by the overall satisfaction rate of the attendants which amounted to 93%, exceeding the set 
target for the year. For 2018, CEPOL will further increase the number of trainings to be implemented, 
with a total of 213 planned activities.

2017 was a milestone in the history of CEPOL, as it launched the first pilot EU-Strategic Training Needs 
Assessment (EU-STNA) applying and adjusting a methodology provided to the agency by a study fi-
nanced by the European Commission. The EU-STNA looks into law enforcement capability gaps that can 
be addressed by training. The pilot will be completed in 2018 and will provide sound evidence on stra-
tegic training needs for prioritisation by the Member States themselves, in line with EU policy priorities.

Moreover, in 2017 CEPOL further enhanced the learning experience provided to registered users of its 
online learning platform, the CEPOL e-Net. For example, it expanded its Online Course portfolio from 1 
to 8 courses, thereby adding more colours to the palette of its learning portfolio. Furthermore, the e-Net 
platform offered its registered users direct access to an even broader variety of international journals, as 
well as online books.

Two pilot CEPOL Knowledge Centres (CKCs) were established in the priority areas of Counter-terrorism 
and Common Security and Defence Policy mission training respectively. The CKCs are tasked to develop 
and implement comprehensive training and learning portfolios ensuring high quality of education 
in a multi-annual, sustainable horizon that aims at retaining and further developing know-how and 
expertise.

The 1st CEPOL European Joint Master Programme was successfully completed. 26 students graduated 
and received their Master Diploma in October 2017. In parallel, 30 new students were enrolled in the 2nd 
edition of the Master Programme.

In November 2017, CEPOL also successfully concluded the implementation of the ‘EU/MENA Counter-
terrorism Training Partnership project’ financed by the European Commission — Instrument Contribut-
ing to Stability and Peace (IcSP).

Finally, I am proud to mention that in 2017, following an external audit, CEPOL was certified as meeting 
the ISO 9001:2015 Management System Standard by Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance in the areas of 
law enforcement residential activities and the CEPOL Exchange Programme. This achievement dem-
onstrates the organisation’s high commitment to quality and stakeholders’ satisfaction and underlines 
CEPOL’s continuous work towards excellence.

(1)  Regulation (EU) 2015/2219 of the European Parliament and of the Council of November 2015 on the European Union 

Agency for Law Enforcement Training (CEPOL) and replacing and repealing Council decision 2005/681/JHA.

3

Exchange Programme brochure 2017CEPOL is constantly addressing the evolving challenges that the European 
Union is facing. New patterns of transnational crime, the ever more impel-
lent migration crisis and the surge of terrorism cannot be met without 
effective cross-border cooperation. The CEPOL Exchange Programme is 
designed to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and practices among law 
enforcement officials, and to further strengthen our common European law 
enforcement culture, so that we are better prepared to face what lies ahead. 
It is worth mentioning that in 2017 CEPOL organised 559 exchanges (2), 
with an overall satisfaction rate of 93%. For the future, I am certain that this 
unique learning opportunity will remain a valuable source of knowledge 
and experience for the European law enforcement community.

Detlef Schröder
CEPOL Executive Director

(2) 

Including the 24 Future Leader course participants.

4

Exchange Programme brochure 2017About the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Training

CEPOL is an agency of the European Union dedicated to developing, implementing and coordinat-
ing training for law enforcement officials. Since 1 July 2016, the date of its new legal mandate, CEPOL’s 
official name is the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Training. CEPOL contributes to a safer 
Europe by facilitating cooperation and knowledge sharing among law enforcement officials of the EU 
Member States and, to some extent from third countries, on issues stemming from EU priorities in the 
field of security; in particular, from the EU Policy Cycle on serious and organised crime.

CEPOL brings together a network of training institutes for law enforcement officials in EU Member States 
and supports them in providing frontline training on security priorities, law enforcement cooperation 
and information exchange. CEPOL also works with EU bodies, international organisations, and third 
countries to ensure that the most serious security threats are tackled with a collective response.

CEPOL activities provide opportunities to stay up-to-date with the latest international developments 
and trends in the law enforcement field, especially concerning cross-border and serious international 
crime. CEPOL employs a multi-layered approach to learning, with different activities complementing 
one another:

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residential courses and seminars;
online seminars (webinars);
online courses;
e-learning modules;
bilateral exchanges through the CEPOL Exchange Programme;
European Joint Master Programme;
common curricula.

Residential activities are courses, conferences and seminars that typically last a week and are held in 
a training institute in one of the Member States. Residential activities provide an opportunity to gain 
a deeper understanding of a subject. Teaching often features case studies and participants are encour-
aged to share best practices.

The CEPOL Exchange Programme is a CEPOL flagship activity, offering law enforcement officers the op-
portunity to spend 6 days/5 nights with a counterpart in another country.

The CEPOL European Joint Master Programme (EJMP) is an EU academic programme which aims to 
address common challenges of police cooperation in the frame of internal security. It provides students 
with science-based competences in a European community of practice. The academic programme 
is led by a Consortium of 21 partners and CEPOL Accreditation has been provided by the Spanish ac-
creditation institute, ANECA and the master Diploma is awarded by the Spanish University, UNED. In the 
first European Joint Master Programme (2015-2017) 26 students graduated in October 2017 and have 
received their Master Diploma. In the second cohort 30 students from 21 EU Member States have been 
enrolled and will take part in 7 modules of the Master Programme. In 2018 an expert group will further 
develop the CEPOL Master Programme with the intention to initiate a new academic programme as of 
2020.

5

Exchange Programme brochure 2017The purpose of CEPOL’s Common Curricula is to provide recommendations about law enforcement 
training on specific subjects with a European dimension. Member States can then use the recommen-
dations within their national law enforcement training programmes according to their individual needs. 
The Common Curricula also provide the basic ideas and elements for CEPOL’s courses and seminars.

Besides the core business, CEPOL was granted the opportunity to implement the EU/MENA Counter-
terrorism Training Partnership Programme between 2015-2017 involving Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia and 
Turkey in various capacity building activities by offering jointly designed, tailored and organised training 
activities utilising the truly multilateral European approach to good practices and CEPOL’s tested and 
tried learning and training products.

All activities are supported by the e-Net, CEPOL’s online learning platform. Through e-Net, users have 
access to a variety of tools and resources that support and prolong the learning experience. The e-Net 
platform provides access to numerous professional scientific journals covering topics from across the 
field of international policing and criminal justice in Europe, plus a collection of academic e-books with 
160.000 titles to be downloaded.  The e-Net also hosts the e-Library, which allows the self-organised 
archiving, sharing and disseminating of knowledge documents or scientific findings related to policing 
and law enforcement topics in general and their context in the European arena.

About the CEPOL Exchange Programme

The CEPOL Exchange Programme fulfils CEPOL’s mission to contribute to European law enforcement 
cooperation through learning to the benefit of European citizens through the following objectives:

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- 
- 

to promote mobility and allow the exchange of law enforcement officials, in the framework of 
practice-related training programmes;
to establish a common and shared practical knowledge in different law enforcement fields;
to disseminate and share, at the EU level, good practice;
to contribute to the creation of a European law enforcement culture;
to encourage mutual learning and networking in the framework of European law enforcement 
cooperation.

The CEPOL Exchange Programme comprises of Exchange Programmes for the law enforcement of-
ficers — leaders, experts, trainers and researchers — within the 42 involved countries (EU Member 
States, candidate and potential candidate countries, eastern partnership countries as well as associated 
countries).

All topics covered by the Exchange Programme were identified by CEPOL as priority thematic areas and 
most have a European or cross-border dimension.

In 2017 thematic areas also covered border management, and thanks to the enhanced cooperation with 
Frontex, in 2017 the CEPOL Exchange Programme was advertised also within the Frontex network.

6

Exchange Programme brochure 2017To take part in an exchange, participants must:

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- 
- 
- 

have a minimum of three years’ work experience in the field of interest;
speak at least one foreign language;
preferably be new to the Exchange Programme;
commit to cascading their newly gained knowledge to colleagues at a national and European level.

Law enforcement officials interested in taking part in the CEPOL Exchange Programme can contact their 
National Exchange Coordinator (contact list is available on e-Net for registered users).

Segments 2017
1.  General Exchange Programme;
2.  Exchange Programme for senior law enforcement leaders;
3.  Exchange Programme for trainers;
4.  Exchange Programme for researchers.

7

Exchange Programme brochure 20178

Exchange Programme brochure 2017CEPOL Exchange Programme (CEP) 2017

The CEPOL Exchange Programme is a CEPOL flagship activity which started in 2007, at that time financed 
via first AGIS then ISEC. Following Council Conclusions in 2010, CEPOL took over the financial section from 
its own budget allocations, ensuring a smoother and more efficient administration of the programme.

From 2007 until today, multiple changes were introduced to better tailor the training needs of European 
law enforcement authorities. The new CEPOL mandate, which entered into force on the 1st of July 2016, 
introduced a new phase in CEPOL’s history, extending the target group to all law enforcement authori-
ties and all ranks. This important amendment could be fully introduced into the Exchange Programme 
in 2017, inviting not only police, but customs and tax authorities, border guard agencies as well as 
prosecutors to benefit from this training tool.

Nevertheless, the main objective of the Exchange Programme remained the same, namely to enhance 
law enforcement cooperation in combating crime. To reach this goal, the importance of the Exchange 
Programme as a training element is acknowledged more and more on a European level. The Erasmus-
style method is a learning activity which provides exchangees with the opportunity to create a network 
of colleagues and familiarise themselves with the working methods of other countries by exchanging 
experiences and sharing expertise. On a longer term it contributes to build trust and to establish a more 
efficient cooperation of not only the EU Member States, but all other involved countries, that fits well with 
the aspirations of the European Agenda on Security. The Agenda prioritises the fight against terrorism, ac-
tivities under the EU Policy Cycle on serious and organised international crime, strengthening information 
exchange instruments and raising awareness on fundamental rights as a key crosscutting issue in training.

The European Agenda on Security embeds law enforcement training in the European Union security ar-
chitecture, as a key supporting action, crucial to achieving high level strategic and operational results in 
protecting Union citizens. CEPOL supports all key priority areas deriving from the Agendas on Security 
and Migration, in line with its mandate and the LETS principles.

2017 was the first year when CEPOL fully embraced the thematic approach in all its activities, including 
the Exchange Programme.

The priority areas in 2017 particularly for the Exchange Programme were:

• 

• 
• 

• 

• 
• 
• 
• 

continued support to the implementation of the EU Policy Cycle on serious and organised interna-
tional crime;
terrorism and radicalisation;
information exchange instruments and law enforcement cooperation mechanisms, particularly 
those established by the Union;
promotion of the full respect for Fundamental Rights as a key crosscutting issue in training, to pro-
mote a balanced and proportionate law enforcement response to security threats;
strategic vision of European law enforcement development;
law enforcement research, development of education and learning approaches and techniques;
CSDP Missions, specifically on the law enforcement and judicial cooperation aspects;
capacity building in third countries.

9

Exchange Programme brochure 2017CEPOL ensures that gaps continue to be identified in all policy cycle priorities and are adequately 
tackled by training. It also provides a platform for exchange of knowledge and skills across the Union to 
enhance specialist skills and competences at strategic and tactical level.

In 2017, emphasis was put on the multi-layered approach which was outlined in the five-year evaluation 
report of CEPOL. The report concluded the following:

‘Compared to courses and other learning activities, the relevance of the EPEP (3) is mainly ensured by the 
fact that individual participants are directly involved in drafting the Exchange Programme. This enables 
full alignment of the EPEP with the individual needs of the participants. Overall survey results showed 
that the EPEP is considered a highly relevant programme for the needs of LEA. The EPEP was considered 
by the NCPs the most relevant activity implemented by CEPOL.’

As a room for improvement the report mentioned that the relevance of the Exchange Programme could 
be further enhanced if combined with other activities, such as courses and webinars. In 2017 CEPOL 
increased the number (from 18 to 24) of those future leader course participants, who implemented also 
an Exchange Programme, embedded in the course curriculum. A practice that will also continue in 2018.

CEPOL had for some time been working towards achieving an ISO certification. The aim being to achieve 
consistency in the agency’s management, improve internal processes and fulfil legal and regulatory 
obligations. One of these processes was the one related to the Exchange Programme, thus the Exchange 
Programme management together with the relevant quality documents were thoroughly evaluated in 
2017 followed by a final audit. As a result of the audit the CEPOL Exchange Programme was awarded the 
international certification together with the entitlement to use the ISO 9001:2015 logo in its procedures.

Annual progress
The evolution of the Exchange Programme in numbers is indicated in the below graph.

Number of exchangees

598

492

444

428

292

293

312

700

600

500

400

300

200

100

0

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

(3)  EPEP (European Police Exchange Programme) is the former title of CEP

10

Exchange Programme brochure 2017Since the 2010 Council Conclusion, when CEPOL took over the management of the Exchange Pro-
gramme within its own budget allocations, every year offered an opportunity for improvement. While 
in 2011 police officers of the EU Member States could cooperate in sixteen different topics, in 2012, the 
programme involved Eastern partnership countries, the Western Balkan countries, and Turkey in topics 
which highlighted the most severe threats to internal security faced by Member States. In 2013, beyond 
the bilateral exchanges between senior police officers, experts, trainers and commanders, 4 study visits 
were organised to EU agencies operating in the field of justice and home affairs. In 2014, the Exchange 
Programme was further refined to better reflect the requirements concerning the European Union’s 
internal security strategy and the EU Policy Cycle, and established a multi-layered approach to learning. In 
2015, technical changes, such as introducing the unlimited nominations and pre-matching, contributed to 
a refined matching procedure and thus the rise of satisfaction level. In 2016, after the new CEPOL mandate 
entered into force on the 1st of July, exchangees from all law enforcement authorities could benefit from 
this training tool.

2017 Exchange Programme
In 2017 the extended mandate could be fully introduced in the launch of the programme, therefore the 
CEPOL Exchange Programme invited all law enforcement authorities within all ranks to participate.

The extended target group together with the successful promotion of the programme throughout 
the previous year using multiple channels, resulted in a record high number of application forms. Until 
1 March 2017 National Exchange Coordinators submitted 863 nominations from various law enforce-
ment organisations covering all topics and all segments of the programme.

The unlimited nominations generated a large reserve list, which helped us involve further exchangees 
after the budget transfer of EUR 140 000 in March, and engage further exchanges when it became 
necessary due to step backs. In 2017 the number of step backs was 85, which is an increase compared to 
54 in 2016. Despite our projection to reduce the number of step backs with prioritising the pre-matched 
applicants, experiences of this year showed that our expectations were not met. There were 30 step-
backs of pre-matched applicants, which is rather significant, taking into consideration that pre-matched 
colleagues already have a prior agreement and higher commitment to implement the programme. 
Considering these elevated numbers of step backs particularly for pre-matched exchanges, our aim, as 
a priority, is to reduce this number significantly in 2018 since step backs generate a re-match risk factor 
and a higher work load for all involved.

In general however the overall conclusion regarding the idea of pre-matching was extremely positive in 
2017. 44% of the total number of application forms (377 out of 863) were submitted to us as pre-matched 
exchanges. Out of these 377 applications, 91% (344) exchanges were implemented throughout the year. 
Most of the application forms (228 out of the 377) made a clear cross-reference to the selected counter-
part, which resulted in a successful matching and implementation of the exchange. After clarification and 
correspondence with the NECs most of the remaining pre-matches could also be identified.

In 2017, 40 partners (EU MS, candidate countries, Eastern partnership countries and Western Balkan 
countries, as well as Norway and Switzerland as associated countries) submitted applications out of 
which Norway, Switzerland and the UK were only hosting. This resulted in a record high number of 
applications, a total of 863, out of which it was possible to implement 535 exchanges. In addition 39 

11

Exchange Programme brochure 2017participants took part in a study visit to Frontex, which, together with future leader course participants 
(24) resulted in a total number of 598 exchanges in the 2017 CEPOL Exchange Programme.

2017 applications vs implementation

1000

900

800

700

600

500

400

300

200

100

0

863

535

24

24

Exchanges

Future leaders

Applied

Completed

61

39

Study visit

In order to enhance cooperation with other JHA agencies, in 2017 the CEPOL Exchange Programme was 
advertised also within the Frontex network. Nominations were accepted through the existing NECs, 
however a wider target group was informed about the Exchange Programme possibility with a result 
of 26 nominations under border management areas. The selection and matching was carried out in 
cooperation with Frontex which resulted in 16 successful CEPOL-Frontex Joint Exchange implementa-
tions. In addition to these 16, 7 further exchanges were implemented with border guards however not 
under the cooperation with Frontex due to their category (Leadership, language development, train the 
trainers; Specific areas and instruments analysis, forensics, law enforcement techniques).

Methodology of matching in 2017
For the 2017 edition of the Exchange Programme, it was decided not to fix a maximum number of appli-
cations per participating country, the NECs could therefore nominate everyone who met the eligibility 
criteria. As expected, the number of applications exceeded our budgetary limitations, therefore we 
aimed to reach a fair distribution of exchanges amongst all participating countries ensuring that all seg-
ments and categories were represented, while giving a priority to applications under the EU Policy Cycle 
and to those who were ‘pre-matched’.

This new approach gave us a better understanding on the arising demand of the involved countries re-
garding the Exchange Programme, as well as the possibility to establish a reserve list to be used in case 
of step backs or in case of additional financial resources. The programme was advertised in a number of 
fora including EMPACT coordinators/drivers and other networks, such as ENFAST and ATLAS. Due to the 
efforts made by both the agency and the NECs, our anticipation regarding the high number of applica-
tions became a reality with 863 applications submitted following the launch of the programme.

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Exchange Programme brochure 2017The outcome to successfully realise our objective to involve all countries, all segments and all categories 
is shown in the below graphs (data applies only to Exchange Programme applicants, study visit and 
future leaders course participants are not included).

Applied vs implemented exchanges per EU Member State

65

34

27

22

15

10
6

7

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

66

61

45

41

29

24

26

16

39

31

40

29

20

18

2

2

3

3

12
10 11

10

9

7

6

0

31

30

32

25

23

25

17

13

12

21

6

5

23

22

19

17

15 15

11

5

Austria

Belgium

Bulgaria

Croatia
Cyprus
Estonia
Czech Republic

Finland

Germany
France

Greece
Hungary

Ireland

Italy

Malta
Portugal
Poland
Netherlands
Lithuania
Latvia
Luxemburg

Romania

Slovakia

Slovenia

United Kingdom
Sweden
Spain

Applied

Implemented

Applied vs implemented exchanges per Non EU Member States

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

12

5

5

3

2

4

5

4

Albania

Armenia

Bosnia and Herzegovina
Former Yugoslav Rep. of Macedonia

37

40

25

17

8

10

21

15

48

13

2

2

3

0

1

0

2

1

Georgia

Kosovo

Moldova

Montenegro

Norway

Serbia

Switzerland

Turkey

Ukraine

Applied

Implemented

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Exchange Programme brochure 2017Implemented categories

134

37

18 21 19

16

12 10

8

70

46

40

12 10

14

1

22

16

3

12 11

3

160

140

120

100

80

60

40

20

0

MTIC fraud

Heroin trafficking
General

Specific areas and instruments(analysis, forenciscs, law enforcement techniques
Leadership, language development, train the trainers
Law enforcement cooperation and information exchange
Child sexual exploitation
Planning and command of Unionmissions
Card fraud
Public order - policing in major events
Property crimes
Counterfeit goods
Cocaine trafficking
Research and prevention
Cyber attacks
Counterterrorism
Facilitation of illegal immigration
Excise fraud
Firearms trafficking
Fundamental rights

Synthetic drugs
Trafficking in human beings

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Exchange Programme brochure 2017EU Policy Cycle
Regarding Exchange Programme participants of 2017, a priority was given to the categories under the 
EU Policy Cycle. 191 exchanges were implemented successfully, out of which 84 applications were pre-
matched. The distribution by topics is indicated in the chart below:

EU Policy Cycle implementation

Trafficking in human  beings, 11

Card fraud, 16

Synthetic drugs, 12

Property crimes, 16

MTIC fraud, 22

Child sexual exploitation, 8

Cocaine trafficking, 12

Counterfeit goods, 10

Cyber attacks, 18

Heroin trafficking, 14

Firearms trafficking, 12

Excise fraud, 21

Facilitation of illegal immigration, 19

The new CEPOL mandate came into force on 1 July 2016, inviting all law enforcement organisations 
to participate in all CEPOL activities. This important amendment could be fully introduced into the 
Exchange Programme in 2017 inviting not only police, but customs and tax authorities, border guard 
agencies as well as prosecutors to benefit from this training tool.

15

Exchange Programme brochure 2017The applicants indicating their sending organisations on the application form resulted in the following 
distribution between law enforcement organisations:

Law enforcement segments

600

500

400

300

200

100

0

558

361

178

95

Police

Other

Conclusions

42

23

Border
guard

37

29

29

18

11

2

8

7

Customs

Tax
authorities

Prosecutor

Tax and
Customs

Applied

Implemented

The internal security needs of the EU are constantly evolving, resulting in increasing demands on law 
enforcement officers. This is clearly manifested in CEPOL’s new mandate that entered into force in July 
2016. The right skills and the right strengths will be critical in order to meet the future security chal-
lenges faced by Member States and CEPOL, therefore the fine-tuning of the Exchange Programme 
must also be addressed enabling the agency to contribute effectively to the overall objectives of the 
European Union and of the European region as a whole.

Narrative reports

The narrative report is one of the CEPOL Exchange Programme templates that are filled in by the partici-
pant after the completion of the Exchange Programme. The report gives CEPOL an insight to the experi-
ences the participants gained and tells us about the knowledge that he/she could share with the counter-
parts. This selection of the narrative reports is an excellent forum to show the relevance of the Exchange 
Programme and is undoubtedly strong evidence that this training tool can contribute efficiently to reach 
the goals of disseminating and sharing good practices at the EU level. This Publication contains a selection 
of narrative reports from each country representing all categories within the Exchange Programme.

16

Exchange Programme brochure 2017Participants from Albania

Participant
Bilbil Memaj, Albania

Host
A.P., Estonia

Segment: Senior Law Enforcement Leaders
Category: Leadership, language development, train the trainers

‘I had and will have continuous brief-
ings, meetings and presentations 
with my staff, regarding this great 
exchange experience I had, sharing 
with them the best moments of 
best practices, suggestions for future 
improvements and further exchange 
of experiences with the respective 
country.

During my exchange I have met the 
following specific positive outcomes:

(a)  Estonian counterpart had better sophisticated equipment which I will try to put into my Academy 
of Security too, by making a Memorandum of Understanding with the Academy of Security Sci-
ences and collaborating together in this perspective.

(b)  Also the Estonian counterpart had better organisational structure, which as mentioned above I will 

try my best to integrate it into the Academy.

(c)  Lastly, Estonian counterpart had better investments, which I will try to get from the Albanian politics 

as time goes by, since you can do nothing without a good budget.

Our exchange will continue through e-mails and as mentioned above, through signing a memoran-
dum of understanding, which will make possible future cooperation and exchange of experience, best 
practices, lessons learnt.’

Participant
Lumturi Boja, Albania

Segment: General
Category: Property crimes

Host
Anna Khachatryan, Armenia

‘Thank you a lot, that you gave me the opportunity in my life to know such a good person, like my 
counterpart, Anna Khachatryan. I think it was a successful Exchange Programme between us because 
we are at the same position to investigate property crimes, the procedure, the forms, seriousness at 
work and cooperation with colleagues. Anna is a professional policewoman and I was impressed about 
her desire towards her job.

17

Exchange Programme brochure 2017During the Exchange Programme I found out that there is a different system in relation to investigation, 
based on the good cooperation between the offices.

During my exchange I came across several specific positive outcomes, like finding the criminal records 
on the internet, too. I was impressed by the fact, that policewomen have the opportunity to build a ca-
reer in the area of law enforcement.

Based on my experiences I would like to continue the cooperation with my exchange partner, because 
we have the same goals about investigation in the field of property crime, as well as regarding the 
methods, the procedures, etc.’

Participant
Adriatik Duqi, Albania

Host
Elmar Nurmela, Estonia 

Segment: Senior Law Enforcement Leaders
Category: Leadership, language development, train the trainers

‘I was matched with the right person and the reason is simple: we had things in common in terms of 
Exchange, Management, Learning, Training and Language Development. In terms of management, 
we were both as such. In terms of learning, training and language development, we were both part of 
academic institutions and profited a lot from such an exchange of experiences.

Estonian counterpart had better sophisticated equipment, working conditions and workload, which in 
turn made me take that best positive outcome and share it with my colleagues, managers, directors, 
so that we could have better things related to our job. All of that will eventually give the institution 
I represent and my country as well, better positive outcomes in our daily work, starting from the 
individual and ending up to the General Police Director.

Estonia is a highly developed country of technology and this is what we want to develop in Albania 
through a fruitful collaboration between the institutions.’

Participants from Armenia

Participant
 Anna Khachatryan, Armenia

Segment: General
Category: Property crimes

Host
Lumturi Boja, Albania 

‘My exchange partner Lumturi Boja is a police officer working in Albanian Police for more than 10 years 
and her actual work includes both police activities, such as operative work and criminal case investiga-
tion. As I am an investigator -with working experience more than 3 years- whose work includes, in the 
vast majority, indoor actions, such as interrogation, decision-making, in a written form, my exchange 
with Mrs Boja was based on the part of her work, only on the procedures while investigating criminal 
cases, especially property crime investigation techniques.

18

Exchange Programme brochure 2017Despite that and the fact that we have difference in experience and age, in my opinion, the decision 
to exchange us was based on the fact that we have common goals and tasks to solve in our spheres, 
and also both of us were attending “Women in Policing”conference on 2016 and 2017, so we had more 
common interests related to that, so I think that the exchange partner match was successful.

In Armenia there are already some procedures implemented for network investigation, which include 
less paper work and more practical online actions while informing and reporting to superiors.

The fact that I have seen the practical use of such a way of working in Albania, a total information 
management system, and I saw its benefits, will help me to pass to that way of investigating more easily. 
Now, in our daily work, we have the ability to try using this kind of network procedures with one or two 
cases and at this point I realise that even if it is unusual and takes a long time to get used to that way 
of working it is worth trying, as in Albanian Police the same system helps to reduce the time of routine 
paperwork so it will do the same in the future for my daily work, while investigating property crimes 
and other criminal cases.

The best practices from my organisation were shared with my exchange partner in general by showing 
the criminal cases of common property crimes and describing the tactics, methods and procedures, 
including reliable cooperation with other bodies that help to successfully disclose criminal cases. All the 
mentioned topics were described while showing practical work and while discussing the methods of 
work with representatives of my organisation and the bodies that are cooperating in the field of investi-
gating property crimes.’

Participant
 Anna Badalyan, Armenia

Host
S.S., former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia 

Segment: General
Category: Leadership, language development, train the trainers

‘I think that my partner was the right chosen one, because she is working at the Training Centre of Police 
of the Republic of Macedonia and she introduced some skills concerning the teaching process. I am 
sure that my visit to Macedonia was useful, because I will share with my experience in Police Educational 
Complex of Armenia. The main purpose is to share part of Macedonian experience related to organisa-
tion and providing of trainings, and teaching methodology also.

I came across several good practices during my exchange, and found it very motivating that trainers 
support the students’ learning process by explaining, that the learning environment is designed by 
trainers, as well as the theory and the practice are integrated during the education.

Taking into consideration the fact that the students of our Training Centre have the first period of prac-
tice after one-month study and the last practice they attend before the exams, it would be easier and 
more effective to pass exams after each finished course and organise the final practice after the exams. 
This approach could enhance the effectiveness of process. In my opinion, from the next year we would 
be able to organise this.

19

Exchange Programme brochure 2017I have introduced the structure of Armenian Police Educational Complex, the specifics of education 
in our Training Centre, including the duration of education and general framework of courses. It was 
interesting for Macedonian colleagues the Armenian experience of internships, as we have internships 
with different duration, organised in different levels of study.’

Participants from Austria

Participant
 Robert Hirz, Austria

Host
K.K., Estonia 

Segment: General
Category: Specific areas and instruments

‘Match was very successful. My counterpart could answer all my questions regarding his organisation, 
the premises and had organised meetings for me with competent personnel from other organisations 
I was interested in.

There were several specific positive outcomes from my exchange, for instance the combination of 
Forensic Science, Biometric Identification and Legal Medicine in a single organisation in one building. 
This promotes the necessary cooperation in solving crimes and should be followed up in Austria, espe-
cially when a new building for Forensic Science is discussed. It was also beneficial to see, that there was 
a loose cooperation with the EKEI in Tallinn especially in ENFSI (European Network of Forensic Science 
Institutes). Having met the heads of all the forensic disciplines in EKEI there might be more cooperation 
in technical matters than before the CEPOL exchange.

In a meeting with a high ranking representative of the IT service provider - the Centre of Registers and 
Information Systems (RIK) of the Ministry of Justice- I was introduced to the powerful IT-system of the 
ministry, which seems to have made the administrative processes much more efficient enabling the 
justice system to end a trial as fast as 3 months after the start of an investigation.

The quality management system of the EKEI seems to me more complex than our system. In the EKEI 
internal quality audits are performed by the heads of the different forensic disciplines not by the quality 
manager alone. We will copy this system as it promotes the exchange of ideas for improving the service.’

Participant
 Daniel Schweinberger, Austria

Host
X.d.B., Belgium 

Segment: General
Category: Specific areas and instruments

‘The Exchange Programme has enabled us to meet two very likeable experts in the field of the 
latent-fingerprints. With regard to experience and general knowledge in the field of work processes, the 
possibility of an intensive exchange of knowledge was possible. The reason for the Exchange 
Programme was first and foremost the upcoming accreditation in Belgium.

20

Exchange Programme brochure 2017I have introduced the structure of Armenian Police Educational Complex, the specifics of education 

in our Training Centre, including the duration of education and general framework of courses. It was 

interesting for Macedonian colleagues the Armenian experience of internships, as we have internships 

with different duration, organised in different levels of study.’

Participants from Austria

Participant

 Robert Hirz, Austria

Segment: General

Category: Specific areas and instruments

Host

K.K., Estonia 

‘Match was very successful. My counterpart could answer all my questions regarding his organisation, 

the premises and had organised meetings for me with competent personnel from other organisations 

I was interested in.

There were several specific positive outcomes from my exchange, for instance the combination of 

Forensic Science, Biometric Identification and Legal Medicine in a single organisation in one building. 

This promotes the necessary cooperation in solving crimes and should be followed up in Austria, espe-

cially when a new building for Forensic Science is discussed. It was also beneficial to see, that there was 

a loose cooperation with the EKEI in Tallinn especially in ENFSI (European Network of Forensic Science 

Institutes). Having met the heads of all the forensic disciplines in EKEI there might be more cooperation 

in technical matters than before the CEPOL exchange.

In a meeting with a high ranking representative of the IT service provider - the Centre of Registers and 

Information Systems (RIK) of the Ministry of Justice- I was introduced to the powerful IT-system of the 

ministry, which seems to have made the administrative processes much more efficient enabling the 

justice system to end a trial as fast as 3 months after the start of an investigation.

The quality management system of the EKEI seems to me more complex than our system. In the EKEI 

internal quality audits are performed by the heads of the different forensic disciplines not by the quality 

manager alone. We will copy this system as it promotes the exchange of ideas for improving the service.’

Participant

 Daniel Schweinberger, Austria

Host

X.d.B., Belgium 

Segment: General

Category: Specific areas and instruments

‘The Exchange Programme has enabled us to meet two very likeable experts in the field of the 

latent-fingerprints. With regard to experience and general knowledge in the field of work processes, the 

possibility of an intensive exchange of knowledge was possible. The reason for the Exchange 

Programme was first and foremost the upcoming accreditation in Belgium.

We were able to study the working pro-
cesses and the organisation in Belgium. 
The structure is significantly different 
compared to Austria and that is import-
ant to understand this in order to under-
stand their work processes. In Belgium, 
only civil servants and no police officers 
work in the dactyloscopic area. Therefore, 
they have to delegate many activities 
that we take for granted. So the Belgian 
fingerprint experts only perform the dac-
tyloscopic identification processes and 
the national reporting requirements with 
their labs in the federal countries. The in-
ternational correspondence after hits, for 
example in the Prüm AFIS data network, is carried out by another department (National Contact Bureau). 
However, the NCB in Belgium currently has no access to the biometric database. This complicates and 
slows down the work processes. In AT, biometric identifications are carried out by the fingerprint experts 
(the most of them are police officers) and so also the international correspondence with the other states. 
We have also learned, how your AFIS System works and how the parallel programmes work and how the 
dataflow about dactyloscopic data (fingerprints and marks) is working in interaction with the federal labs. 
It was very interesting to see what quality standard they have. Belgium works like Austria with a numeric 
standard included 12 points, but they have the possibility to write a report with minimum 8 points. That 
would be inconceivable in AT. In terms of the quality standard there are only 5 colleagues allowed to 
make the validation. In our country all Module 2 fingerprint experts are allowed to make the validation. 
They show us also the Prüm AFIS, but Belgium is only in the construction phase. Now they have no per-
sonal resources but the technique is still working. We also learned about Prüm follow up (2nd step) data 
exchange, how it works in Belgium. In terms of this topic we drive with the dactyloscopic experts to the 
NCB (National Contact Bureau) because this agenda was carried out by police officers. This is also the rea-
son why in Belgium the correspondence is more complicated than in Austria because in one case work 
many different colleagues and departments. As a result, this workflow (2nd step) is slower and requires 
more power but due to their organisation, it is not possible otherwise.’

Participants from Belgium

Participant
 Rudi Labeeuw, Belgium

Host
P.G., France 

Segment: General
Category: Specific areas and instruments

‘My host was very good. We share the same frame, same responsibility and same job in terms of being 
a team leader, file preparer, and having direct link with the command.

I came across several good practices during your exchange, such as searching in high crime, the hard-
ware installation, and regarding the tactical penetration AMOK.

21

Exchange Programme brochure 2017Regarding the possibility to incorporate any of these best practices in my daily work to the benefit of 
your organisation I have to say, that our work is specific and secretive, therefore I cannot speak more 
about it in advance, but contacts are made to share training, information and even joint projects.
We had all the information from the command and were totally integrated into the devices on the 
ground. All the specificities of our work have been approached with the order of each technique but 
also with the primary users.

There were many specific positive outcomes from this exchange. I found it very advanced, that the or-
ganisation of a reagent human team operational in the 1/4 hr, and I could experience the reorganisation 
of a defensive human team through a real operation and technical support.

At our level, we noticed that the information on the functional organisation chart and the organisation 
was less important than the training in the exercises, especially the operational ones.’

Participant
 David Wattin, Belgium

Host
M.L., France 

Segment: General
Category: Specific areas and instruments

‘My host was very good. We have the same frame, same responsibility and same job, as we carry out 
observation. We share the motivation for continual development and we have spent same time in unit.

During my exchange I came across several good practices, such as the practice of proactive search, the 
use of various police files, the hardware installation (secret), and the tactical penetration AMOK (secret).

In relation to integrate the experience in my country I can tell, that our work is specific and secretive, so 
I can’t reveal it here, but contacts are made to share training, information and even joint projects.

During the Exchange Programme, we had the opportunity to compare our procedures, with all mem-
bers present at these presentations. During free moments, we were also able to discuss our methods.

As a specific outcome I would like to mention the adaptation of the observation device when using 
technical means of localisation, the reorganisation of a defensive device, an offensive device and the 
use of video technical medium that we do not use yet. Possibility of development of the use of this 
technical means.

We remain in regular contact and have already agreed to exchange during future training. We have 
already been able to put our colleges of technical service in contact with members of the same type of 
service that we met during our exchange.’

22

Exchange Programme brochure 2017Participants from Bosnia and Herzegovina

Participant
 Nebojsa Mandzo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Host
Georgios Gousas, Greece 

Segment: General
Category: Facilitation of illegal immigration

‘I think I was definitely matched with the right person, considering the topic I mentioned in the appli-
cation for the programme. Greece faced (and it is still facing) illegal immigration as almost no other 
country. Also, my exchange partner was directly involved in this area of work, he is very experienced 
and willing to share this experience with me.

Good practices that came across during my exchange were to experience the good cooperation 
between the different state services, but also other organisations as well (for instance IOM) dealing 
with illegal migrants. Beyond this I considered as good practice the high level of cooperation with the 
community in receiving information related to smuggling of illegal migrants and other types of crime, 
as well as the humanitarian aspects of dealing with illegal migrants.

Despite being on the Balkan route, Bosnia and Herzegovina wasn’t affected largely with the unprec-
edented flow of illegal migration, as was the case with Serbia or the former Yugoslav Republic of 
Macedonia for example. However, it was useful to see best practices in the country that was (and still is) 
affected and can offer a lot of opportunities for learning.

I used the opportunity to share experiences gained during my work in the area of fighting illegal migra-
tion and smuggling of illegal migrants.’

Participants from Bulgaria

Participant
 Emiliya Petrova, Bulgaria

Host
Andrei-Atila-Luca Chendi, Romania 

Segment: General
Category: Law enforcement cooperation and information exchange

‘I was happy to have the best partner I could ever choose — in fact the hosting institution was one of 
those pointed out in my application form, but I was really blessed to have as a partner one of the per-
sons with biggest experience in this institution and the most profound knowledge and vast experience 
in the matter of greatest interest to me — the administrative investigations.

I strongly believe that the professional relationship established in the course of the CEPOL Exchange 
Programme will be highly beneficial for our future everyday work as it appeared that we both come 
across one and the same challenges and we deal with similar cases in our daily work. Furthermore it ap-
peared that we might be in a position to work on one and the same case spreading over the territories 
of the two neighbouring countries — Bulgaria and Romania — as in our discussions we both reached to 

23

Exchange Programme brochure 2017the conclusions that the open borders between the two EU Member States give greater possibilities for 
both regular and irregular activities. And the irregular activities, involving the expenditure of EU funds, 
are in the focus of our attention. And such cases have already appeared — the economic operators 
involved benefit from the different jurisdictions in the two neighbouring countries and the bureaucratic 
way of communication between the national institutions, when it comes to handling law enforcement 
cases and data. For that reason the contacts established between the right parties on the two sides of 
the borders appear to be crucial for the successful completions of every single case. Furthermore, we 
have found that the modi operandi used by the economic operators involved are very similar, in most 
cases even the same, and the experience gained by one of the institutions and shared to the other 
would save a lot of time and efforts to the latter.

One of the most beneficial and exciting elements of my participation in the 2017 CEPOL Exchange 
Programme was the fact that, due to the initiative undertaken by DLAF, a group of three Bulgarian 
officials had the chance to exchange experiences with a group of two officials of AFCOS Serbia hosted 
by a group of five DLAF officials. Thus the bilateral Exchange Programme turned into trilateral and we 
were happy to discuss issues and problems of interest to all the three national institutions involved. 
Moreover, the tasks and obligations of the three AFCOS services concerned are quite alike in their nature 
and we come across similar difficulties and problems to resolve. Sharing experience and best practices 
helps us to find shortcuts and save efforts in our everyday work.

I was very impressed by the 
information shared through 
the presentations regarding 
the organisation and the 
functioning of the Fight against 
Fraud Department — DLAF. 
I had some general information 
about DLAF and my expecta-
tions were quite big, but the 
information shared met even 
my highest expectations.

DLAF is organised and 
functions as a structure with 
legal personality, under the 
coordination of the Prime Min-
ister, on the basis of a law (Law No 61/2011 regarding the organisation and the functioning of the Fight 
Against Fraud Department — DLAF) and acts on the basis of a functional and decisional autonomy, 
independently from other public authorities and institutions. These are the most mature arrangements 
with regard to the establishment of the AFCOS Service in all the EU Member States. Furthermore, DLAF 
has a Programmes and Professional Training Service, which coordinates, on a national level, the profes-
sional training and development in the field of protection of the European Union’s financial interests 
in Romania. In my opinion this is a very best practice as training at national level appears to be crucial 
for the early detection of suspicions of fraud and irregularities as well as for the prevention of fraud and 
irregularities.’

24

Exchange Programme brochure 2017Participant
Petar Marinov, Bulgaria

Host
Jose Manuel Orge Soto, Spain 

Segment: General
Category: Law enforcement cooperation and information exchange

‘I definitely think that José was the right match for me, considering our professional growth and 
experience. We have both graduated as Inspectors from our national police academies, graduated in law 
and despite of working on different areas of police work, now we are both using the international 
cooperation and information exchange on a daily basis. Spain is one of the top countries when it comes to 
police information exchange with the Bulgarian law enforcement authorities, especially concerning 
organised crime, which was one of the topics of our exchange. And what is more is that the traffic of 
motor vehicles is a big common problem between our countries and in my everyday work I’m 
experiencing problems with vehicles, wanted by the Spanish authorities as stolen or misappropriated. My 
exchange partner is head of the unit, dealing with this crime area, so the Exchange Programme gave us 
the opportunity to meet each other in person and to discuss our common cases and future cooperation.

I think that in Bulgaria it is possible to 
have way better and facilitated way 
of using the computer integrated 
international and national databases 
and special software. The problem 
here is in the applications, which are 
old and they were developed in-
wardly by administrative unit in MOI. 
We need motivated and well paid IT 
specialists who will be able to create 
and develop good software for the 
police needs.

Bulgaria does not have a police aviation unit, mainly because of financial reasons, although as seen in 
Madrid, police aircrafts are of great importance for preventing/fighting criminal activity and for protec-
tion of the citizens. Unfortunately, it is probably not possible for Bulgaria to have police aviation in the 
near future, because our country cannot afford it.

We have shared a lot of our experience and best practices. During the course of the discussions with 
my Spanish colleagues I shared the Bulgarian experience in establishing new forms of trafficking in 
human beings, migrant trafficking, stolen vehicle trafficking, identifying specific/unusual characteris-
tics of smuggling of illicit drugs; methods of trans border transportation; trends, new modi operandi 
and particularities of the trafficking processes. The visit of Border control point - Kalotina (which is the 
border between Bulgaria and Serbia) - was very beneficial for the Spanish colleagues, as they had the 
opportunity to get familiar and realise the problems and way of working of the border police at external 
border of the European Union. Also we discussed the channels for exchange of information between 
the police authorities of our two countries and the role of the SPOC/Front Desk Office and the liaison 
officers (Bulgarian and Spanish) was specifically emphasised.’

25

Exchange Programme brochure 2017Participant
Atina Mestan, Bulgaria

Host
A.R., former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia 

Segment: Trainers
Category: Leadership, language development, train the trainers

‘I visited Macedonia and to be more precise, the Police Training Centre in Skopje. Being a senior trainer 
at a Police Centre of the same kind I was, of course, mainly interested in the learning plans, programmes 
and curricula.

At the police centre we had an opportu-
nity to meet the Manager of the Centre as 
well as many teachers and people from the 
Administration. During the discussion we 
were presented the structure, organisation 
of the learning process and the curricula of 
different courses that take part there. We also 
were shown all kinds of premises where the 
educational process is going on. As I expected 
the system of police training in Macedonia 
resembles that in my country: both are 
designed to develop knowledge, skills and competences to meet current challenges and needs of the 
societies as a whole and the law enforcement institutions in particular. I would like to underline two 
advantages of the police education in Macedonia that impressed me best. The first one concerns the so 
called institution of mentors, people responsible for the organisation and conducting practical sessions 
in the field. They are chosen under defined criteria and specially trained for this position. We had an 
opportunity to meet a mentor and his trainees when we visited the Police station in Ohrid and we were 
impressed by the way they worked. The second thing is the assessment criteria for the evaluation of the 
final exams. They are designed in such a way that the subjectivity is minimised.

Our visit to the Regional Centre for Border Affairs South was also very interesting and useful. There we 
got acquainted with the current migration situation in the region and what was done to overcome the 
migration crisis in 2015. In fact all the activities included in the Activity plan were useful and interesting.

Last but not least come the contacts with colleagues in Macedonia, the most important thing for me, 
because this is, I think, the core of the programme and its objectives:

• 
• 
• 
• 

to establish a common and shared practical knowledge in different law enforcement fields;
to disseminate and share, at the EU level, good policing practice;
to contribute to the creation of a European law enforcement culture;
to encourage mutual learning and networking in the framework of European law enforcement 
cooperation.

Host

Ivaylo Stoyanov, Bulgaria 

‘The matching was successful because I had the opportunity to exchange experience and best 

practices generally in crime investigations and in investigating card frauds. Additionally I was able to 

Participants from Croatia

Participant

 Nenad Grcic, Croatia

Segment: General

Category: Card Fraud

practice and improve my language skills.

Bulgarian police have a special depart-

ment for investigators. Investigators 

perform all evidence actions that are 

later used in court. In this way, it is 

ensured that the evidence is carried 

out with as less probability as possible 

that something will be done incorrectly. 

Also only experienced police officers 

with Police academy or law faculty can 

become investigators.

Cooperation between Bulgarian police and Traffic agency was also considered a good practice. The 

Bulgarian Traffic agency has many traffic cameras all over the country, which can provide quality infor-

mation for some cases. The location of these cameras is carefully selected so that the camera covers 

enter into cities and other locations that are operationally interesting.

Bulgarian police have special rooms for conversation between lawyer and suspect. These rooms are 

made to prevent contact between the lawyer and the suspect, while allowing uninterrupted communi-

cation at the same time.

It is possible to incorporate these practices in my daily work, but this is more a question of structure of 

Ministry and country legislation changes rather than personal decision. In some future cases I can easily 

contact my Bulgarian host and ask for fast cooperation if is needed.’

Participant

 David Dzimbeg, Croatia

Host

D.T., Moldova 

Segment: General

Category: Counterfeit goods

At the end I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to my exchange partner for arranging this 
outstanding professional and cultural experience.’

‘In my opinion, being matched with the member of Economical Police of General Police Inspectorate of 

Moldova, Criuleni District was very appropriate, as I was able to have an exchange experience were we 

26

Exchange Programme brochure 2017Participants from Croatia

Participant
 Nenad Grcic, Croatia

Segment: General
Category: Card Fraud

Host
Ivaylo Stoyanov, Bulgaria 

‘The matching was successful because I had the opportunity to exchange experience and best 
practices generally in crime investigations and in investigating card frauds. Additionally I was able to 
practice and improve my language skills.

Bulgarian police have a special depart-
ment for investigators. Investigators 
perform all evidence actions that are 
later used in court. In this way, it is 
ensured that the evidence is carried 
out with as less probability as possible 
that something will be done incorrectly. 
Also only experienced police officers 
with Police academy or law faculty can 
become investigators.

Cooperation between Bulgarian police and Traffic agency was also considered a good practice. The 
Bulgarian Traffic agency has many traffic cameras all over the country, which can provide quality infor-
mation for some cases. The location of these cameras is carefully selected so that the camera covers 
enter into cities and other locations that are operationally interesting.

Bulgarian police have special rooms for conversation between lawyer and suspect. These rooms are 
made to prevent contact between the lawyer and the suspect, while allowing uninterrupted communi-
cation at the same time.

It is possible to incorporate these practices in my daily work, but this is more a question of structure of 
Ministry and country legislation changes rather than personal decision. In some future cases I can easily 
contact my Bulgarian host and ask for fast cooperation if is needed.’

Participant
 David Dzimbeg, Croatia

Host
D.T., Moldova 

Segment: General
Category: Counterfeit goods

‘In my opinion, being matched with the member of Economical Police of General Police Inspectorate of 
Moldova, Criuleni District was very appropriate, as I was able to have an exchange experience were we 

27

Exchange Programme brochure 2017could have a work-related conversation, my counterpart understood all the questions I asked and could 
give a proper answer, in a simple and comprehensive way, as in my work experience I confronted myself 
with all the possible situations related to economical frauds and crimes, as well as Mr D.T. has.

I found very useful to see that at the Moldovan police there is a function of the head of the case, which 
coordinates the work of the police officers in charge of each individual case, and the work of which is 
not performed by another superior police officer. Beyond this, it was interesting to learn that the work-
ing hours of police officers are 24 hours, and it covers the duration of the day, allowing better insight 
for police officers in cases such as grey market and counterfeit goods. Criminal investigation ends with 
consultations with the state prosecutor’s office.

In contrast to the Moldovan system, in Croatia every police officer responsible for economic crime is 
responsible for his own case. Through the institute of case leader, it could contribute to a better 
resolution of each case.

I believe that the way 24/7 allows for better access 
to solving certain problem of economic crime, 
and by introducing such a way, it may be possible 
to contribute to better results in the work.

However, the main difference in the treatment 
of the Moldovan and Croatian police is in various 
legislations, so the application of the Moldovan 
way of work depends primarily on the changes or 
adaptations of the legislation.

The most positive side of the exchange is to acquire new acquaintances and contacts among members 
of the Moldovan police that I could use in my future work. Finally, it is certainly important to emphasise 
the benefits of exchange is not closely related to police affairs, as well as to familiarise yourself with the 
lifestyle of Moldavian residents and to discover the beauty of that country.’

Participant
  Nela Adjulovic, Croatia

Host
Konsta Fagerlund, Finland 

Segment: General
Category: Cocaine trafficking

‘In total, considering the idea of the Exchange Programme, we (my dear colleague and me) have 
definitely matched with the everyday challenges ahead. My duties are to investigate serious crimes, 
among others, murders connected to the organised crime. Very often behind one murder case there is 
a very organised group of drug traffickers at the international level. My exchange colleague is 
responsible for cocaine trafficking at the national level, while I have worked in the Police Department in 
one of the counties. But today, more than ever before, the criminals and crime have no border. Just 
recently, my exchange colleague had a case of international cocaine trafficking where one of the 

28

Exchange Programme brochure 2017perpetrators was from my country. We have a need to react immediately, and just take a phone or via 
the email contact colleague directly could help more than waiting sometimes too much for one 
response. This is and it will be in the future a very important way to achieve success in combating crime. 
Then, there were other colleagues who have kindly and willingly held a presentation on the job they are 
doing, and we have exchanged the phone numbers and the email. It was interesting to listen to the 
presentation of the legislation applied in Finland which differs from the law we apply in Croatia. Very 
interesting was the presentation of the unit placed at the airport and that unit is unique. It is made up of 
various agencies: police, custom and border guard. Through that specific unit information are 
exchanging immediately, accurate avoiding unnecessarily delay because of administrative reasons. The 
same unit is news to the entire EU.

As our job is specific, it is not almost possible 
to bring the case to the prosecution without 
collaboration with other colleagues, agencies, 
institutions, etc. Working together we build 
the case, so to share information, specifically 
to share contact of my exchange colleague 
with my Croatian colleagues in specific cases, 
will be crucial. While fight the crime we build 
the bridges. Then, to suggest to create some 
new units it’s demand just another point 
of view from the authorities, to see on how 
we could have better crime prevention and 
better solving cases with some new organisa-
tional changes.’

Participants from Cyprus

Participant
 George Apostratou, Cyprus

Segment: General
Category: Facilitation of illegal immigration

‘I am sure that the exchange was done with 
the right person for the following reasons: 
the colleague was a good professional and 
he knew the subject of immigration very 
well. His behaviour was impeccable, which 
helped our cooperation. The fact that we 
were talking the same language also helped. 
Finally, an important role in the success of the 
exchange was the fact that we were at the 
same age with my colleague from Greece.

Host
Evangelos Triantis, Greece 

29

Exchange Programme brochure 2017During the exchange I learnt both the positive as well as the negative aspects of the Greek Immigration 
Unit, I had the possibility to exchange knowledge as to methods and tools used in investigating Immi-
gration cases.

The incorporation of the practices I have learned through the Exchange Programme can be done 
through the daily cooperation, and I will try to combine our own methods with the Greek without our 
law being violated.

During the Exchange Programme I had the opportunity, and in particular the visits we have made to 
various departments of the Immigration Service and the Aliens and Immigration Unit, to share with my 
colleague the legislation that each section applies, but also the way in which legislation is applied in 
practice.

I intend to continue my cooperation with my colleague both through my own, and my own visits at my 
own expense, but also through the exchange of information and experience that will be useful in our 
work.’

Participant
 Harris Krassos, Cyprus

Segment: General
Category: Synthetic drugs

Host
M.F., Germany 

‘I was matched with the right person because he was also working in the field of forensic chemistry and 
toxicology, specialised in the analysis of drugs for the last 20 years having a lot of experience and 
passion for his work. It was very interesting to see how another forensic lab does its routine analysis 
helping me see a range of methods and techniques in another view.

Good practices that I came across 
during my exchange were using 
the GC-IR for qualitative analysis 
of drugs, using the LC-TOF and 
GC-MS for the identification of 
unknown drugs in seized materials 
and in blood samples, as well as 
the quantitative analysis of drugs 
in seized materials and blood 
samples using the GC-FID, HPLC, 
and GC-MS/MS for cannabis.

Unknown substances are a big challenge in forensics and the learning of the techniques they use for the 
extractions like SPE or liquid/liquid extraction to clean the sample having a good recovery of the drug 
were very useful. Also the derivatisation substances they use for their unknowns as well as the use of 
their instruments can also be used in my lab. Also the techniques they use for the quantitative analysis 

30

Exchange Programme brochure 2017of the known drugs were also very interesting. They also use an automated system to follow their sam-
ples using barcodes for each sample. This system will probably need a lot of time to be incorporated in 
my lab. Also the GC-IR is too expensive and it would be difficult to buy in the next few years.

In some cases when they described the methods they used, I described them our own and discussed 
them and saw the advantages of each one. But I believe that my exchange will better see our practices 
when he comes to my lab and maybe he could use some.’

Participant
 Aphrodite Tillirou, Cyprus

Host
Biljana Koturevic, Serbia 

Segment: General
Category: Specific areas and instruments

‘I believe I was matched with the right person. My exchange partner is also a chemist and she is 
teaching in the Forensic Department of the Academy of Police and Criminalistics studies and also she 
has collaboration with the National Forensic Centre. I had the chance to learn how the students are 
trained so they will be able to work after their studies in a forensic lab. But also I had the chance to see 
how another forensic lab does its routine analysis, what methods they are using and what problems 
they are dealing with.

The best practices that I came across during my exchange 
were the semi quantitative analysis of cannabis using TLC, 
the identification of unknown drugs and their excipients 
using IR Spectroscopy, and the extraction techniques for 
explosives exhibit.

For the drug analysis we already have established our own 
methods but it’s also very interesting to know how the 
other laboratories are doing their analysis and we might 
use some of their practices to improve our methods. For 
explosives analysis we are going to apply the extraction 
techniques that they use because we are facing many 
problems with our extraction procedure.

In our organisation we only deal with the analysis of the 
exhibits, we are not going to the crime scene. It was very 
interesting for me to see how another organisation is 
working (from the collection of the samples in the scene until the analysis of the exhibits). But also it was 
very interesting to learn how the students are trained so they will be able to work after their studies in 
a forensic lab. I will share all the information with my colleagues and I believe it will be very interesting 
for them also.’

31

Exchange Programme brochure 2017Participants from the Czech Republic

Participant
Petr Pojman, Czech Republic

Host
V.D., Ukraine 

Segment: General
Category: Law enforcement cooperation and information exchange

‘It was a proper match, as I am coordinator of 
several security programmes between Czechia 
and Ukraine I was happy to see all process of 
education system in Odessa State University of 
Internal Affairs. This was possible because my 
exchange partner was head of one department. 
It means that additionally to activities with him, 
I had an opportunity to meet other officers with 
different specialisations. I observe practical les-
sons on police tactics and other subjects. I went 
through a course of various Soviet and Ukrainian 
weapons. We have a very specific offer from the 
University. There were around 60 explosions 
in Odessa since 2013. The success of the local 
pyrotechnics were introduced to me in cooper-
ation with the pyrotechnics of regional police 
service they are able to train our pyrotechnics. 
There could be up to 25 people in a single turn 
according to the words of the pyrotechnics. Most 
of the perpetrators were found. Apart from the 
destruction and deactivation of explosives, there 
is major emphasis on forensic investigation and searching for the perpetrator on the basis of the traces 
left on the explosive device. If I need to be able to mediate further talks about this offer.

I am coordinator of several security programmes between Czechia and Ukraine but I do not have direct 
possibility to incorporate best practices. But I have good opportunity to share this experience with 
different MI and Police departments and with the Institute of Criminology and Social Prevention. I have 
taken part on several meetings on Criminal police and I shared the experience from Odessa also with 
Liaison Officer of Czech police in Kiev.

We had a lot of experience to share best practices from my organisation and in general with other 
Czech police organisations. In August we were back in Odessa with Czech police experts on the fields of 
investigation of sexual violence.’

32

Exchange Programme brochure 2017Participant
 Dalibor Muszela, Czech Republic

Segment: General
Category: Cocaine trafficking

Host
Badri Mchedlishvili, Georgia 

‘I was in touch with a colleague working on drug issues. Not at an international level, like me, but at the 
regional level that is relevant to our regional headquarters.

Together, we compared the ways in which information was collected for police work and criminal 
proceedings. At the same time, we have continued our future cooperation in the fight against drug 
trafficking. We build common contacts.

The Georgian police have an excellent system for detecting cross-border movement of persons and are 
fully using it, and police officers are willing to further educate and work to strengthen the fight against 
organised crime, including corruption. We were happy that the Georgian police are willing to cooperate 
with us in international cases.

Rather, we do not use the Georgian police procedures because we have a different legal arrangement. 
On the contrary, the Georgian side can find in our legal possibilities useful tools in the fight against drug 
trafficking. For example, law enforcement and police agents, including internationally, a drug-consign-
ment tracking system, prophylaxis of drug smugglers, and so on. For now, Georgian police capabilities 
are not usable.

I have made good contacts with Georgian police officers who can help with international cases in the 
future. I have found many excellent, honest and hardworking colleagues. Thanks to the support of the 
EU and other countries, I feel that the Georgian police can be a very valuable investment for interna-
tional cooperation, especially when monitoring heroin smuggling from Afghanistan through Iran and 
Azerbaijan to Europe because it is on this route. I have found that Georgia has a very good record of the 
population, which is a very good tool for police detectives. Some tools of evidence for the Czech police 
are not so good and could be better after experience with the Georgian reality.’

Participants from Estonia

Participant
 Elmar Nurmela, Estonia

Host
Adriatik Duqi, Albania 

Segment: Senior Law Enforcement Leaders
Category: Leadership, language development, train the trainers

‘I had a match with the right person. The exchange was made by the request of Albanian Academy of 
Security representatives, because they would like to have contact with similar academy as they are by 
the development strategy and I can confirm that it was the right choice. My partner was the head of 
international relationship in Albanian Academy of Security and on the same time a CEPOL NEC as I am.

33

Exchange Programme brochure 2017During the programme, I understood that our academies are really quite similar and because of both 
exchange periods our academies signed Memorandum of Understanding between Albanian Academy 
of Security and Estonian Academy of Security Sciences on Cooperation in the field of Internal Security 
education on 1 November 2017 in Tirana, Albania.

We provided to Albanian side our legislative different acts about our academy status in Estonia and 
during the signing of Memorandum of Understanding Between Albanian Academy of Security and 
Estonian Academy of Security Sciences on Cooperation in the field of Internal Security education on 
1 November 2017 in Tirana, Albania we had possibility to meet with Albanian Deputy Minister of Interior 
Ms Rovena Voda. She promised to our delegation to organise political support for Albanian Academy of 
Security to get the same legal status as our academy have right now in Estonia and maybe will be 
needed to organise special visit of small delegation of Ministry of Interior and maybe another politician 
to Estonia to introduce our system as well.’

Participant
Marko Leevand, Estonia

Segment: General
Category: Synthetic drugs

Host
Francisco Antonio Romero Pena, Spain

‘Mr Pena was the right person for many reasons. First of all, we had one big drug smuggling case 2 years 
ago. We met in Eurojust meeting and worked together about one year. In the beginning I wasn’t sure 
how we can contact and also sometimes there is a problem with understanding or there are differences 
with laws which regulate criminal procedures. But overall, in the end of the day I have to say, our English 
is at the same level and we understood perfectly each other and our work methods are very similar. I am 
very satisfied that our cooperation is even better after participation in Exchange Programme.

I know that Spanish police have good contacts with US and they work together with different cases. So 
good contact is the keyword.

Valencia Port was very big, probably one of the biggest in Europe. It was very impressive to see people 
from police and customs working together in the port. I was one day in the port, and we found approx. 
50 kilos of cocaine that day.

Also containers control system, X-ray and contact person from US Customs, who was also there all the 
time. This makes exchange of information even easier. Very impressive!

Police work in Valencia Airport is a little bit different compared to Estonia. Before customs control, police 
take the people to control.

We continue cooperation. Lots of Estonian criminals went to live in Spain in the early 90s and now crim-
inals in Estonia use those contacts in Spain to organise narcotics trafficking. So we have different drug 
cases now and in the future and we need help from Spanish police.’

34

Participant

 Vallo Koppel, Estonia

Host

Danijel Lorbek, Slovenia 

Segment: Senior Law Enforcement Leader

Category: Leadership, language development, train the trainers

‘The matching was successful because the conditions were comparable. Slovenia is also a small country, 

like Estonia. The police regions are almost the same size as Estonians. The Maribor Police Directorate has 

almost the same population (32 000) as the Southern Prefecture here in Estonia. There is a river in the 

town centre in Maribor and in Tartu, which makes some public security related issues for both. In addi-

tion, both police regions have Schengen external border, so we have to deal with organising the work 

of the border guards. Even the border issues are the same, as neither Estonia, nor Slovenia has a border 

agreement with their neighbouring countries.

It was very positive and interesting to hear how my host makes the surveys to get information about the 

personal satisfaction in relation to the work of the chiefs of the units. This is very inspiring and I believe, 

that in one way or the other I will introduce this practice in my unit, too. No doubt, that the leaders have 

to take care of their team, but it is quite tricky to get the answer if we succeeded.

One of the positive outcomes was practising English language. Related to my work I do not have to 

speak English very often, but several times during the year I am hosting partners from other EU coun-

tries, and deliver presentations for them. All in all, English is a needed skill.

Thirdly, it was very useful to get an overview of the Slovenian police practice and about the legislation 

related to the voluntary police officers. We have voluntary police officers in Estonia too, but the legisla-

tion is different. This would be a combination of the present Estonian legislation with some elements of 

the Slovenian legislation that allows the police to oblige voluntary police officers to come to duty and 

regulate the payment for them in these situations. As resources are limited everywhere, it is mandatory 

to think about all possibilities how to fulfil our goals.’

Participants from Finland

Participant

Sari Ahonen, Finland

Segment: General

Category: MTIC fraud

Host

I.S., Romania 

‘I was matched with the right person. My host is working as anti-fraud inspector in Tax Administration 

and I´m investigating economic crimes in the Customs. Although she isn´t doing preliminary investi-

gation, we both are dealing for example with tax and MTIC frauds. She is gathering and analysing the 

information for the possible future criminal investigation. And I´m using the same information during 

my preliminary investigations. Furthermore we are almost same aged women. I have a little longer work 

history in this field, 10 years next May. The organisation she´s working was established in June 2013.

Exchange Programme brochure 2017Participant
 Vallo Koppel, Estonia

Host
Danijel Lorbek, Slovenia 

Segment: Senior Law Enforcement Leader
Category: Leadership, language development, train the trainers

‘The matching was successful because the conditions were comparable. Slovenia is also a small country, 
like Estonia. The police regions are almost the same size as Estonians. The Maribor Police Directorate has 
almost the same population (32 000) as the Southern Prefecture here in Estonia. There is a river in the 
town centre in Maribor and in Tartu, which makes some public security related issues for both. In addi-
tion, both police regions have Schengen external border, so we have to deal with organising the work 
of the border guards. Even the border issues are the same, as neither Estonia, nor Slovenia has a border 
agreement with their neighbouring countries.

It was very positive and interesting to hear how my host makes the surveys to get information about the 
personal satisfaction in relation to the work of the chiefs of the units. This is very inspiring and I believe, 
that in one way or the other I will introduce this practice in my unit, too. No doubt, that the leaders have 
to take care of their team, but it is quite tricky to get the answer if we succeeded.

One of the positive outcomes was practising English language. Related to my work I do not have to 
speak English very often, but several times during the year I am hosting partners from other EU coun-
tries, and deliver presentations for them. All in all, English is a needed skill.

Thirdly, it was very useful to get an overview of the Slovenian police practice and about the legislation 
related to the voluntary police officers. We have voluntary police officers in Estonia too, but the legisla-
tion is different. This would be a combination of the present Estonian legislation with some elements of 
the Slovenian legislation that allows the police to oblige voluntary police officers to come to duty and 
regulate the payment for them in these situations. As resources are limited everywhere, it is mandatory 
to think about all possibilities how to fulfil our goals.’

Participants from Finland

Participant
Sari Ahonen, Finland

Segment: General
Category: MTIC fraud

Host
I.S., Romania 

‘I was matched with the right person. My host is working as anti-fraud inspector in Tax Administration 
and I´m investigating economic crimes in the Customs. Although she isn´t doing preliminary investi-
gation, we both are dealing for example with tax and MTIC frauds. She is gathering and analysing the 
information for the possible future criminal investigation. And I´m using the same information during 
my preliminary investigations. Furthermore we are almost same aged women. I have a little longer work 
history in this field, 10 years next May. The organisation she´s working was established in June 2013.

35

Exchange Programme brochure 2017I met several good practices, such as:

• 

• 

• 

Types of fiscal evasion related to excise products: for example cigarette smuggling. The modus 
operandi is quite the same in both countries: Finland and Romania. Recently it has become very 
popular in both countries to use flying devices -motor hang glider/drone- which are modified in 
order to transport cigarette master cases over the border (FI — Russia and RO — Ukraine). So it was 
really interesting to share the best practices and to acknowledge that the problems and the investi-
gating methods are quite the same in both countries.
Cash registers: During the strike it is possible to seize some goods, if the seller hasn´t respected the 
fiscal code. In our case we confiscated skirts. In Romania the Tax Administration has their own shops, 
where they can sell these seized goods. I think, that is one point I can start a discussion here in Fin-
land. And I will also give the information about the steps during the strike to the Tax Administration 
here in Finland.
VAT and MTIC frauds: also in this case, the modi operandi are quite the same in both countries. We 
changed the information for example which other countries are usually involved in this kind of 
frauds. During the discussion it was stated how important the cooperation between preliminary 
investigation authorities, tax administration and prosecutors is. Also the cooperation among other 
Member States. And it´s also good to remember that domestic anti-fraud measures in any Member 
State can affect other Member States.

We had good opportunity to exchange information about the most popular fraud methods in the field of 
tax evasion and about the problems in the whole process of investigation, especially gathering the 
evidence. As I have mentioned before, the modi operandi are quite the same in both countries. We 
exchanged contact information of different authorities and discussed ideas for possible future professional 
partnership. I have got information about the investigation methods, cooperation between the different 
institutions during the pre-trial investigation, technical equipment and databases they use –and vice 
versa- I shared the same information to them. This kind of information was very useful for both parties.’

Participant
 Aapo Kaipiainen, Finland

Segment: General
Category: Counterfeit goods

Host
Ioannis Psomas, Greece 

‘I was lucky to get Mr Psomas as my exchange match. As a head of department he is a true professional 
in his work and has a lot of knowledge about customs work in general. Mr Psomas has outstanding 
social skills so it was a pleasure to have him as a host and he introduced us to several persons at work 
and free time. Mr Psomas had made an interesting activity plan and we were at the same page from 
very beginning.

In Iraklion Customs, all the departments are located in one building so officers from different depart-
ments have daily interaction with each other. It’s good for exchanging information and also increasing 
understanding of different tasks involved in customs work. Meeting colleagues outside one’s depart-
ment creates team spirit and fellowship at work.

36

Exchange Programme brochure 2017In Greece, Customs can make inspections for coun-
terfeit products at markets/shops/kiosks etc. We 
had an opportunity to participate in inspections 
for illegal tobacco at a wholesaler’s warehouse, 
for alcohol in a supermarket and for counterfeit 
products in a fashion store. We got a good view on 
how the procedure goes from inspection to con-
fiscation and from investigation to verdict. We also 
took part in a fuel vehicles patrol in the highway.

I came across straightforward relationships be-
tween Customs officers and customers. I think that 
most people understand what Customs do and 
can relate to it. Even at the inspections which lead 
to confiscation, I didn’t notice negative attitude 
towards Customs or officers. This is really helpful 
on daily basis.

After our hosts had presented a procedure, I was 
explaining how the same task is performed in the 
service I work for. As expected, it turns out that most procedures are basically the same but executions 
vary.’

Participant
 Samuli Mikkola, Finland

Host
Joachim Thieltges, Germany  

Segment: Senior Law Enforcement Leaders
Category: Leadership, language development, train the trainers

‘We were not perfect matches considering our tasks or our ranks, but we had still very good outcomes 
from both visits. My exchange partner is a coordinator of Practical Studies but also responsible for 
training programme of field tutors in Palatine-Rhineland Police University College in Germany. My post 
is more closely related in developing and teaching certain course programme contents of use of force 
and tactical first aid training for bachelor’s students but also for instructors. I think we still managed to 
find good common ground and subjects during our visits, which benefited both of us.

During the programme I could gain knowledge of training facilities and equipment that can be used 
in our own intervention (use of force) and also in first aid training. We have some parts of our training 
facilities under a reconstruction and this way I learnt some easy ideas to improve our own learning 
environments like how different wall settings were constructed inside the training areas.

Training modules and programme of fire arms training were important and for our upcoming course 
I could receive valuable information and contacts on how similar kinds of training have already been 
executed with bachelor’s students.’

37

Exchange Programme brochure 2017Participants from France

Participant
Alain Dulouard, France

Host
Eniko Csaszar, Hungary   

Segment: General
Category: Public order — policing in major events

‘I was matched with the right person because I handle areas in public field as a police officer in my unit, 
such as maintenance of order and managing mass events, methods and resources. And secondly, we 
both are working for the public safety.

The calls to the Police are managed by private operators in the form of “call centre”. The calls are sorted 
and analysed: those that require police attention are transcribed (under written message) and sent to 
the operators in the control room. For the most important calls, messages are directly transferred to 
the control room. In contrast to my home site in Bordeaux where all calls are directly received by police 
officials making part of this unit, which generates a higher workload.

The CIC fire brigade is geographically based next to CIC police room, and this facilitates coordination of 
interventions and offers mutual assistance.

The Police software is up-to-date with high-performance: for example the ROBOCOP software allows, 
just by click on the icon, to know where the police car is located and to describe in an accurate way the 
composition of the crew. At the same time, on the computer screen are displayed personal data, skills 
and work equipment of any police officer.

I was interested in the conditions of detention of perpetrators taken into police custody. We went to the 
Budapest custody house. As in England and contrary to France, a perpetrator taken into police custody is 
accommodated in special premises. The investigators go there to interview the suspect. Accommodation 
and housing logistics belong to the unit who manages the special premises, which is a convenient and 
easy way in terms of arranging the investigation procedures. The conditions of detention are based on 
European standards and they are similar in France. Cells are rebuilt according to the same European 
norms. Moreover, the prisoners have also better living condition and more rights than in France. For 
example, they can smoke in their cells and they are allowed to one hour of walk in the open air daily.’

Participant
 Vincent Barand, France

Host
N.N., Kosovo 

Segment: General
Category: Public order — policing in major events

‘My counterpart works for PEJA police station, he has the same amount of responsibilities I have in 
France and we are both captains. He explained to me his main issues and the structure of his unit. It was 
very interesting to learn about Kosovo police and I discovered that this institution is quite similar to the 

38

Exchange Programme brochure 2017French system. Even though Kosovo is a relatively new country, it has managed to take a lot of good 
practices from other nations involved in its reconstruction in the past.

I could come across several good practices during my exchange, such as experiencing regular meetings 
with subordinates to identify potential problems and prepare future activities, the general organisation 
of missions within the unit, as well as the simplification of searches, particularly in the relations with 
judiciary authorities

In fact I am already using these practices in my unit and during our missions, so it’s not something I have 
to initiate. But I could definitely develop the relationships with local authorities to know about their 
needs and explain my constraints.

I explained the numeric tools we have (tablets, smartphones and linked professional applications) and 
the way it helps us to be more efficient in our daily missions.

My partner will come to France next year in November, we will also stay in contact later as he has 
become a friend. We will surely continue to share our experiences by email in order to learn from each 
other’s issues and priorities.’

Participant
 Christophe Stecoli, France

Host
David van der Vloed, the Netherlands 

Segment: General
Category: Specific areas and instruments

‘Considering the topic (inter laboratory exchanges, in the field of sound and voice processing, and more 
specifically, voice comparison), the NFI proved to be the right partner. Actually, the audio group of the 
NFI intends to work the same way as France does, using both phonetic and automatic voice comparison. 
Thus, Dutch and French laboratories are sharing some specific issues, such as the way to merge results of 
the two methods. The comparison between our approaches of this question proved to be important.

Being involved in the use of automatic voice comparison (AVC), I found in David van der Vloed a competent 
correspondent. Since the use of AVC in real cases is still a project in the Netherlands, Mr van der Vloed has 
less practical experience than our team, but had the opportunity to lead many theoretical studies which 
are important contributions in the knowledge of the possibilities offered by the technique, and its limits.

Having presided over the constitution of two corpora of voices, he also has a practical knowledge in 
this field that will be useful for our team, as we are also collecting an important voice corpus in French 
language.

The first best practice concerns the validation of the use of the technique in the process of automatic 
voice comparison. Being already aware of the importance of validations — general validation but also 
per case validation — before the exchange, we now realise that our new corpus will allow us to set it up 
in the short term.

39

Exchange Programme brochure 2017The second best practice is a clear separation between the two stages of the voice comparison process: 
the feasibility study that we would gain by deepening, and the actual comparison.

The third best practice is the use of a blind, holistic test that has been developed and experimented by 
the NFI for years. This blind test can be used as part of the feasibility study.

From a scientific point of view, it is always important to have contacts with some other laboratories. 
They can help us to improve our methods by casting a critical eye on them. In the precise case, the eye 
of the NFI is both a critical and a benevolent one, with the following results:

a)  A renewed confidence in our own methods.
b)  New ways to improve.
c)  Practical proposals for collaborations.

Two propositions have been made for further cooperation:

• 

• 

The first one is that the NFI proposed to help us to implement and practise the blind test in our own 
cases.
The second one is that David van der Vloed proposed to help us with the general evaluation of AVC, 
by experimenting for us on his own equipment or by organising parallel experimentations, in Dutch 
and French languages, according to our needs.

Another way to continue the cooperation can be the organisation of inter-laboratory exercises.

The newly acquired knowledge is already shared with my nearest collaborators. Should some new 
protocols result out of the exchanges, they would be taught to our colleagues of the local services of 
technical traces, in the whole of France.’

Participants from Georgia

Participant
 Vasil Martiashvili, Georgia

Host
W.L., Poland 

Segment: General
Category: Planning and command of Union missions

‘I think that the matching was successful, as I visited divisions that have same functions and respon-
sibilities as my departments where I am working currently. My partner was a real professional and 
experienced police officer. It was a great chance for me to exchange knowledge and experiences in 
many fields.

I could come across several good practices during my exchange, such as familiarising with the structure 
of organisation of host country, facilities and programmes of host country, and equipment and technol-
ogy of host country.

40

Exchange Programme brochure 2017Visiting Regional police Headquarter in 
Lodz was a good way to negotiate with my 
partners and set the future plans of coop-
eration in the relevant field of our agencies. 
We shared common ideas and experiences 
and agreed to organise joint training and 
courses that could be beneficial for both of 
our law enforcement agencies. Especially, 
I would like to emphasise the importance 
of the cooperation in case of crises and 
crowd management and implement the 
best Polish examples in my Department.

I got acquainted with the theoretical and 
practical mechanisms of security and 
public order during the sport events. This is the most important case as my department is responsible 
for sport and cultural event security and safety, as we share common ideas and experiences about the 
functions and responsibilities of SWAT teams.

The Exchange Programme was a good chance to share an experience of our Polish colleagues in terms 
of the participation in police missions.’

Participant
 Nino Elbakidze, Georgia

Host
L.K., Bulgaria 

Segment: General
Category: Specific areas and instruments

‘My exchange partner from Bulgaria was my right match, because she is a Psychologist, as I am. And we 
both are working in a government organisation, so we exchanged our psychological experiences. As we 
don’t have similar job experience, her job experience was useful for training centre of justice of Georgia, 
especially for the test making unit of the training centre, because my partner from Bulgaria works at the 
Institute of psychology of ministry of interior and her main job is to make psychological tests and/or 
plan assessment process of candidates.

The experience I had in Bulgaria will help my organisation to see different tests and recruitment pro-
cesses which are used by my hosting organisation and adopting some of them.

Also, it will be important for the Institute of psychology of the ministry of interior to share our experi-
ence about making trainings.

My partner and I are planning to continue cooperation. It will be important to training centre of justice 
to share assessment and recruitment process experience of psychological institute of ministry of interi-
or, and also, it will be important for institute of psychology of ministry of interior of Bulgaria to getting 
information about trainings of social skills (about creating modules and provide trainings).

41

Exchange Programme brochure 2017I can say from my experience, that CEPOL Exchange Programme has many positive outcomes for the 
participants and the organisations where the participants work. The programme promotes the ex-
change of different experiences and views and also future cooperation between the partners.’

Participants from Germany

Participant
  Armin Hirsch, Germany

Host
Rafael Cuesta, Spain 

Segment: General
Category: Cocaine trafficking

‘My partner in Spain was matching perfectly 
due to his similar responsibility as they are to 
gather information about persons, to localise 
suspects, to carry out wiretapping, observation 
and extraditions of person. The exchange was 
a significant improvement of my networking 
in Spain.

I met several good practices during my 
exchange, such as the access to data, where 
Spanish police officers have the access to flight 
and accommodation data. To get knowledge 
about such databases was an important expe-
rience. Beyond this we could experience their 
approach regarding transportation of drugs 
within the body and shared interesting information about arresting suspects. We had the opportunity 
to try Spanish shooting range and shoot with pump gun, pistol and rifle.

The most important outcome was the daily get-together with my exchange partner and his colleagues. 
We used the time together to discuss cases and for mutual understanding. Trust and confidence is 
crucial for effective and successful team work either in Spain or in Germany.

During the visit of the Helicopter division we could be familiarised with their equipment and could 
compare helicopters of Spain and Bavaria. Both countries use the same type “Eurocopter EC-135” but 
with different equipment.

Cooperation will be continued and intensified. Many suspects are located in Spain and the exchange of 
information is very important for investigations and arrests.’

42

Exchange Programme brochure 2017Participant
 Jessica Rose, Germany

Segment: General
Category: Property crime

Host
D.P., Latvia 

‘At first, I have to say that I had a perfect match with my exchange partner as both of us love our job at 
the police, are very motivated and are interested in improving our knowledge continually.

It was very interesting to see different practices in Latvia. One of them is the unit for analysing smart-
phones and computers. Latvian forensic unit for instance has people working there, who have studied 
their subject for years, while having just a short police education of 6 months. It would be better to be 
more open for specialists at the police in Berlin, especially if they don´t have any contact with the typical 
police work on the street.

Regarding the supervision with cameras I experienced, these cameras can be seen everywhere. On 
public places, in prison and even in police buildings. I never felt observed, it was rather a feeling of 
security. In my discussion about this topic with D.P., she didn´t understand why we have no cameras on 
public places in Berlin. I had to explain that privacy protection is more important in Germany.

Concerning the registration of the inhabitants I found out, 
that in Latvia each citizen has to register his fingerprints for 
getting the passport. So they have a “citizen database”. Since 
a few years the state police can use this “citizen database” to 
compare the fingerprints with fingerprints of crime cases. In 
Germany we don´t have these possibilities. At first you have 
to detect a person who has committed a crime. Depending 
on the person’s criminal career and the legal regulations the 
person’s fingerprints can be stored in a database among other 
things.

In relation to procedures of handling a crime case it came 
out, that in Latvia they have a totally different way of handling 
a case. First of all, they are doing a lot of investigation work. 
If they need permission for criminal investigations, such as 
wiretapping they have to go to the judge directly. For the first, 
the prosecutor is not involved. When the investigators have all 
the information for a case, they will go to the prosecutor who 
will decide whether the case is going to trial. It can be annoy-
ing if the police have invested a lot of effort and then the prosecutor does not agree. In Germany the 
prosecutors are the leaders of a case. If you have some hints about a criminal group and the prosecutors 
do not accept them as being valid enough, the police only have restricted options to investigate, which 
in Berlin will not include criminal investigations, such as wiretapping.’

43

Exchange Programme brochure 2017Participant
  Matthias Frahm, Germany

Segment: General
Category: Synthetic drugs

Host
Harris Krassos, Cyprus 

‘My host and exchange partner, Harris Krassos, also a chemist from Cyprus and a member of the forensic 
toxicology working group, is experienced in the analysis of drugs of abuse and the toxicological 
analysis of biological samples (blood, urine, saliva). I therefore benefited from an effective exchange of 
knowledge, experiences and analytical strategies for analysing drugs of abuse and pharmaceuticals in 
biological samples.

Whenever I had a very specific question, my host and all other colleagues of the various subdivisions 
were very helpful. My host also organised a meeting with a chemist of another section/lab, who works 
with the same machines and analytical instruments, as we do in our toxicology section in Berlin. This 
analyst was a good source of information.

In addition to the professional competence and transfer of knowledge, my exchange partner also 
provided me with insights into Cypriot culture and the history of Nicosia. Nicosia is the capital of the 
Republic of Cyprus and the last divided city in Europe as a result of the occupation of the Turkish army 
in 1974.

Overall, the toxicology lab work in Cyprus is very similar to ours. But some things impressed me, for 
example the one-to-one interview and the discussion of cases with police officers in the reception area. 
They discuss in advance which investigations are necessary and meaningful.

The responsibilities for the analytical methods rotate amongst the staff. If a colleague is sick or away 
on holidays, there is always somebody else available to do the routine work in the lab. The scientists 
and technicians believe that sharing knowledge is very important, as otherwise experience or special 
knowledge will sooner or later be lost. The acquisition of knowledge is supported through in-house and 
external education and training.’

Participants from Greece

Participant
Εvdoxia Genikomsaki, Greece

Segment: General
Category: Excise fraud

Host
Jose Regueiras, Portugal 

‘Although I received the announcement of the result of the matching procedure with a certain level 
of scepticism because of the background divergence among the potential counterparts, since I am 
a customs officer from Greece and was to be hosted by a police officer in Portugal, I ended up feeling 
extremely fortunate with this turn of events. I was most pleased to receive a heart-warming welcome 
from my host Mr Regueiras and his colleagues. The diligently designed activity plan of my host, which 

44

Exchange Programme brochure 2017was executed in the most efficient way, gave me the chance, through numerous meetings with Senior 
Officers and experienced investigators to acquaint myself with a whole new working environment, 
such as the various Police Force Institutions both in Lisbon and Porto, Policia Judiciaria in particular, 
but furthermore, there was provision for me to explore the Portuguese Customs Procedures on Excise 
Duty and Fiscal Fraud by meeting fellow colleagues both in Headquarters and at Viana do Castelo. The 
diversity and plethora of the carefully scheduled meetings was fruitful in a multilevel basis in terms of 
promoting cooperative culture among the various law enforcement organisations working towards 
similar strategic goals and on the other hand to discover how well harmonised practices are shared 
among European customs officers promoting the implementation of European Policies and “establish 
a common and shared practical knowledge in different law enforcement fields” as CEPOL aims to do.

So, in other words apart from topic, rank and work experience, I was most pleased to feel educated, 
motivated and received an innovative experience.

I was astounded by the applied practices, communication network development and exploitation of 
ARO Department of Policia Judiciaria in Lisbon. The Asset Recovery procedure is remarkably organised 
and ran by well-trained investigators and associates, within an auxiliary legal framework that allows the 
production of impressive results.

In the customs fields, which happens to be my area of expertise, I was surprised to learn about the 
implementation of Excise Duty in Plastic Bags and Non-alcoholic beverages containing sugar, as part of 
environmental and public health preservation policies, most definitely was a practice worthy knowing 
of and exploring the possible dissemination to my country of origin.

Being part of the CEPOL Exchange Programme, and leaving the comfort zone of working in the mapped 
territory of my national working environment, broadened my intellectual horizons and gave me a whole 
new perspective towards my career goals, enriched me with benefits that exceeded the daily professional 
needs. This is how I primarily feel that the benefits are incorporated in my personal professional agenda.’

Participant
 Eleftheria Methymaki, Greece

Segment: General
Category: Counterfeit goods

Host
Rea Jaaskelainen, Finland 

‘I consider the matching with my Finnish colleague an utter success, in terms of rank and work expe-
rience! We are both occupied in the same field and have almost the same background. We are both 
working in customs offices and the confiscation of counterfeit goods, is in our daily agenda. Although 
she works only at the airport, in mobile units for passenger control, and I work daily both at the customs 
port and at the airport office, we have many things in common. The counterfeit goods they usually 
confiscate are cigarettes, narcotic drugs, alcohol and automobile spare parts. The counterfeit goods we 
are confiscating are clothes, shoes, sunglasses, perfumes, hand bags, cigarettes and alcohol.

I also think that the exchange was very successful, because all my expectations from it, as well as all 
planned aims (learning outcomes) were fulfilled. Thanks to good communication, while creating the 

45

Exchange Programme brochure 2017hosting plan, we explained to each 
other what we do, what we expect 
and what we aim to achieve with 
this exchange.

We spent most of our time at 
the Vantaa International Airport 
customs office, visiting the depart-
ment of passenger control, the 
department of air mail customs, 
the risk analysis office and the 
command centre. We also visit 
the Vaalimaa Customs Office at the Russian Borders and finally the Department of Economic Offence 
Investigation at Helsinki.

The issues studied during the visit, included the structure and organisation of customs services in 
Finland, the procedures implemented to prevent fraud, especially in the field of counterfeit goods, the 
customs controls and risk analysis information system, all the control instruments and methods that 
facilitate trade and avert fraud in order to protect the EU profits and tasks. It was a great opportunity to 
exchange experiences and practices in the field of customs control.

During my visit, I came across a number of practices that are worth mentioning, and have a value for 
two reasons. The first is related to some similarities Greece and Finland have due to their location. Both 
are EU countries with an extensive borderline with non-EU countries. In both cases, these non-European 
countries are highly implicated in cases of customs fraud and organised crime, especially concerning 
alcohol and tobacco products. This happens because bordering countries have extremely low excise 
duties and as a result creating strong motivation for smuggling. Furthermore, Greece and Finland both 
share borders with European counties such as Bulgaria and Estonia with low taxation in alcohol that 
helps Trader Intra Community Fraud.

The second reason is related to the efficiency of the methods implemented by the Finnish custom 
control services. I think, Finland is the leader among other EU counties, in narcotics and doping offences 
and especially in counterfeit medicine products. Almost 75% of their annual offences are related to the 
above mentioned. This is a new area that can be also investigated by the Greek Customs Services.’

Participants from Hungary

Participant
 Zsofia Darazs-Horvath, Hungary

Segment: General
Category: Payment card fraud

Host
Valentin Marinov, Bulgaria 

‘The exchange partner was an appropriate match, because the host is working almost exactly on the 
same field. The Bulgarian police structure is different from the Hungarian one. There are two police 

46

Exchange Programme brochure 2017directorates, which work on central national and international level: National Police Chief Directorate and 
Police Directorate against Organised Crime. My exchange is working on the National Police Chief Direc-
torate, Economic Crime Department as specialist and has a great variety of experience of card present 
and card not present fraud cases. We are facing almost the same obstacles and difficulties in intelligence 
to identify, capture and arrest criminals and also in collecting evidences. It was very useful to get to know 
the most common properties that define the behaviour of organised crime groups in each country, 
especially on skimming cases, because in the skimming area we are tackling OCGs very heavily to have 
good results and prevent further ATM skimming actions.

We acquired a lot of useful knowledge from each other in connection with the LE organisation systems 
as well, and due to that, we are now much clearer about which particular police unit is to be asked for 
data request, when information request is necessary.

Implementing the new techniques learnt is possible, because we are facing almost similar criminal 
groups. They are coming from and travelling to the same countries, while crossing the borders with the 
intention of committing crimes. They are from the same social level, using similar card present and not 
present fraud modi operandi and devices for skimming.

We have to keep in contact, continuously share information between the two countries to gain knowl-
edge from each other to act rapidly and get prepared for payment card fraud attacks, even skimming 
actions. To interrupt contemplated crimes and prevent further ones, we have to share all the informa-
tion gathered by using the a.m. techniques in the future as well.’

Participant
 Attila Hodos, Hungary
Csaba Beres, Hungary
Lukacs Soltesz, Hungary

Segment: General
Category: Cyber attack

Host
Radu Nicolae Brindus, Romania 

‘The exchange partner was the most appropriate match, because the host and the traveller work in 
exactly the same field. Both police officers are working on the Payment Card Fraud speciality for many 
years and have a great variety of experience of card present and card not present fraud cases. It was very 
edifying to share experiences of the characteristic modus operandi in the participant countries, because 
there are slight differences. At the same time we managed to share experience of new phenomenon 
(for example recently detected new type of devices and modi operandi) with each other. We learned 
a lot of useful knowledge from each other in connection with the LE organisation systems.

Implementing the three best practices such as intelligence and surveillance techniques, cooperation 
with the private sector and using social media for gathering criminal intelligence is possible, because we 
are facing with similar criminal groups.

47

Exchange Programme brochure 2017We have to keep in contact, continuously share information between the two countries to gain knowl-
edge from each other to act rapidly and get prepared for payment card fraud attacks. To interrupt 
contemplated crimes we have to share all the information gathered by using the a.m. techniques.

We are planning to continuously keep in touch with the Romanian colleagues to share information to 
get prepared for the travelling criminals and new modi operandi. We intend to send and receive infor-
mation to accelerate the cooperation between the two countries to interrupt contemplated crimes and 
identify criminals.

Also we plan a continuous cooperation with SELEC.’

Participants from Ireland

Participant
 Dermot Drea, Ireland

Host
N.H., Germany 

Segment: General
Category: Heroin trafficking

‘I would consider that my counterpart and I were very compatible. N.H. was a bit younger than me, but 
our ranks were similar, we were of similar personality and we got on very well, and our interest in the 
area of drug investigations shone through.

I am presently working closely on investigations with 
my regional unit, and in my opinion, the regionalisation 
of specialised units is the way forward. I will hopefully 
be in a position to advise my colleagues in this unit that 
I have seen it working very positively during my time in 
Germany, inform them of my findings, which will in turn 
encourage and assure them, that the direction that they 
are going, is the right one.

I got the opportunity to show my counterpart the level 
of investigative accountability that there is in An Garda 
Síochána, which has evolved in recent years, and how 
this is applied to investigations to include specific super-
visory responsibility and the electronic path attached to 
each investigation. We also visited various specialised ar-
eas within my organisation including the Criminal Assets 
Bureau, a joint agency approach similar to N.H.’s Unit, and 
also the National Drugs Unit, also relevant to his work in Germany.

My area of investigation includes everything from serious and volume crime, to drugs, to prosecuting 

cases in court so I have a wide area of interests and responsibilities. When I went to Germany, N.H. took 

all of this into consideration so we covered a lot of areas in my time over there, from forensics, to organ-

ised crime, to the prison system and it was very educational and interesting.

N.H. and I got on really well and I think that this was why our exchange was such a success. It wasn’t just 

a case that he picked me up and dropped me off at the hotel at 5pm at the close of business. We met in 

the evenings, I met his family. In turn, when he came to Ireland two weeks later, I returned the 

hospitality, and the days continued after 5pm and N.H. spent time with me and my family and friends. 

I think that this is what a true exchange should be, we are all one under the one European Police 

umbrella.’

Participant

 Luke Gray, Ireland

Segment: General

Host

A.L.M., Italy 

Category: Public order — policing in major events

‘I am of Garda rank, so the bottom rung of the ladder. I was matched with a Chief Superintendent. 

Initially I expected this to be a major problem but once we spoke and discussed each other’s 

expectations from the Exchange Programme, I realised that we both would be in a position to provide 

a positive learning experience. My initial apprehension was unwarranted because when I arrived in Italy, 

I discovered that management interact wholly differently with their staff compared to Ireland. During 

my almost eleven years’ service in An Garda Síochána, I have never witnessed an officer perform 

a checkpoint or work on the ground. In Italy, the Chief Superintendent frequently attended and 

performed checkpoints and other road traffic duties alongside her colleagues of lower ranks. As a result, 

management in Italy see at first hand the positives and negatives of their policies and procedures.

With regard to road traffic legis-

lation, I gave the exchange a step 

by step synopsis of how we deal 

with motorists from the moment 

we decide a location to set up 

a checkpoint right through to pro-

cessing FCPNS and drivers under 

the influence of an intoxicant.

I held a misconception that Italian 

Police were not the most pleasant 

to deal with from the public’s 

perspective. This could not be 

N.H. joined me and my colleagues on undercover drugs work in Ireland at a music festival. He stated he 
learned a lot from how we interacted with people here and also suggested that it would be advanta-
geous for his unit to do the same in order to hone their surveillance skills in an alternative environment.

further from the truth. I found all the officers I had contact with to be exceptionally courteous and polite 

in their dealings with the public. This is a trait generally held by members of An Garda Síochána. The 

effectiveness of it was more apparent when viewing a foreign police force utilising these techniques.

48

Exchange Programme brochure 2017My area of investigation includes everything from serious and volume crime, to drugs, to prosecuting 
cases in court so I have a wide area of interests and responsibilities. When I went to Germany, N.H. took 
all of this into consideration so we covered a lot of areas in my time over there, from forensics, to organ-
ised crime, to the prison system and it was very educational and interesting.

N.H. and I got on really well and I think that this was why our exchange was such a success. It wasn’t just 
a case that he picked me up and dropped me off at the hotel at 5pm at the close of business. We met in 
the evenings, I met his family. In turn, when he came to Ireland two weeks later, I returned the 
hospitality, and the days continued after 5pm and N.H. spent time with me and my family and friends. 
I think that this is what a true exchange should be, we are all one under the one European Police 
umbrella.’

Participant
 Luke Gray, Ireland

Host
A.L.M., Italy 

Segment: General
Category: Public order — policing in major events

‘I am of Garda rank, so the bottom rung of the ladder. I was matched with a Chief Superintendent. 
Initially I expected this to be a major problem but once we spoke and discussed each other’s 
expectations from the Exchange Programme, I realised that we both would be in a position to provide 
a positive learning experience. My initial apprehension was unwarranted because when I arrived in Italy, 
I discovered that management interact wholly differently with their staff compared to Ireland. During 
my almost eleven years’ service in An Garda Síochána, I have never witnessed an officer perform 
a checkpoint or work on the ground. In Italy, the Chief Superintendent frequently attended and 
performed checkpoints and other road traffic duties alongside her colleagues of lower ranks. As a result, 
management in Italy see at first hand the positives and negatives of their policies and procedures.

With regard to road traffic legis-
lation, I gave the exchange a step 
by step synopsis of how we deal 
with motorists from the moment 
we decide a location to set up 
a checkpoint right through to pro-
cessing FCPNS and drivers under 
the influence of an intoxicant.

I held a misconception that Italian 
Police were not the most pleasant 
to deal with from the public’s 
perspective. This could not be 
further from the truth. I found all the officers I had contact with to be exceptionally courteous and polite 
in their dealings with the public. This is a trait generally held by members of An Garda Síochána. The 
effectiveness of it was more apparent when viewing a foreign police force utilising these techniques.

49

Exchange Programme brochure 2017In relation to detecting drug driving, Italian Traffic Police bring a registered medical practitioner with 
them to the scene of the checkpoint. This results in a qualified medical person being able to make 
a determination based on his observations re drug drivers. If this was implemented in Ireland, I believe it 
would result in an increase in Drug Driving convictions.

The operational uniform worn by members on the ground is not as formal as that of An Garda Síochána. 
It is more practical and is tailored to fit each individual member correctly. On a personal level I feel this 
portrays a more professional image rather than the “one size fits all” approach.’

Participants from Italy

Participant
  Anna Lisa Mongiorgi, Italy

Host
Luke Gray, Ireland  

Segment: General
Category: Public order — policing in major events

‘My Exchange Programme in Ireland was truly successful. Although my exchange partner was not 
matched with my rank, we had chance of exchanging our different experiences in order to improve the 
reciprocal knowledge of our engagements and activities. As a matter of fact, I could appreciate a dif-
ferent way of “keeping an eye” on the territory: we flew above Dublin on board of the Garda Helicopter, 
enjoying full total view of the town which is the way they control their borders.

Apart from flying, I went on patrolling and checking speed limits with my Irish colleagues: on such occa-
sions I could verify how different their approach is to the checking mode. They have a private company 
engaged to verify the speed limit - this is not allowed in my country - and in case of infringement of the 
Traffic Code they can even take frontal pictures of the drivers - which is, once again, strictly forbidden in 
my country.

When I went to visit their department, I could appreciate the way they can immediately test a suspect of 
drugs: inside their offices there is a medical one, where the doctor called on spot can work out a quick 
answer after collecting the suspect’s biological liquids. In my opinion, this is a very interesting criterion 
to speed up the drugs control: unfortunately I do not think it could be put into practice in my country as 
our legislation has not provided for any agreement on the matter.

While patrolling, as it was so different to our style of doing it, I offered my experience to my Irish col-
leagues in order to proceed to a ‘combined’ system of patrolling the streets of a little town as they were 
those of my town.

It was nice to exchange some community policing criteria: I understood how being friendly towards 
your own fellow citizens might improve the cooperation between police and people.’

50

Exchange Programme brochure 2017Participant
 Giuseppe Zuffanti, Italy

Host
Georgica Panfil, Romania 

Segment: General
Category: Payment Card Fraud

‘All the information shared in my period in Romania allowed me to know a different point of view on 
investigation and tools related to the topic and to improve the Romanian method of investigation. I had 
the opportunity to deal with common activities in the past with the host and all the information 
collected in the partner country allowed me to share case studies on the focus area. The match was 
a very good opportunity and was really successful.

I came across many good 
practices during my exchange, 
for instance the usage of various 
investigative techniques and 
procedures used by experts, 
in biology, chemistry, physics, 
fingerprinting and more, of Na-
tional Forensic Science Institute, 
as well as the main activity of 
the Alexandru Ioan Cuza Police 
Academy: regulations related to 
Initial and Continuous Training 
System within the Ministry of 
Internal Affairs. I found very in-
teresting the principle methods 
used in the Romanian National 
Computer Security Incident Response Team to provide cybersecurity protection through intrusion 
detection and prevention capabilities, responding to incidents and analysing data about cyber threats 
and more.

All the information collected during the Exchange Programme will be used, for example, to update the 
argument of my activity presented at the conference and at the professional updating course of my 
speciality.

I explained to colleagues from the hosting institution the most important activities of the Postal and 
Communication Police of State in particular: Cybercrime legislation in Italy, Cybercrime investigation on 
credit cards and Online CC Fraud and case studies.’

51

Exchange Programme brochure 2017Participants from Kosovo

Participant
 Ismet Hodaj, Kosovo

Host
Andreas Vllachos, Greece 

Segment: General
Category: Trafficking in human beings

‘I can say that it was a very good match 
with the hosting colleague from 
Greece, because his experience with 
illegal migration and the rank he has 
are what I expected from a partner in 
an Exchange Programme.

Now I have a better knowledge of 
duties and work of the Greek Police, 
because for me this is the first time 
that I have been in contact with police 
officers from Greece.

Also, having considered that Greek 
Police is part of some International Po-
lice Organisation with a huge experience, I had the opportunity to gain experience from different fields 
such as: illegal migration, managing detained persons return, conducting passport controls etc.

The issues I consider most important or interesting for other colleagues are: having a good communica-
tion with your exchange partner and getting to know the culture of the hosting country.

This Exchange Programme to my opinion is a good way of sharing experiences and building 
professional networks, I am really pleased to have been part of it.’

Participant
 Florije Gashi, Kosovo

Host
Helga Meyer, Germany 

Segment: General
Category: Cocaine trafficking

‘The Exchange Programme is very useful for meeting other officers from different countries. This match 
was very successful for me and my exchange partner. I have seen lots of practices that can be useful 
and can improve the future work of Kosovo Police.

One of the best practices was the visit in BLKA Unit — Investigation of Drug Crimes Committed by Ba-
varian Residents Abroad/Synthetic drugs. The presentation of the “MARIMANGA” investigation case gave 

52

an insight into cooperation between 

Kosovo Police Drug unit and in Bavarian 

Drug unit which was very successful.

In relation to the positive outcomes of 

the exchange, learning the databases 

in collecting information in drug cases 

was very useful to me. I have also made 

a new friend and professional connec-

tion in Mrs Helga Meyer, which I can 

use, if necessary, for police work.

I do have plans to continue coop-

eration with my exchange partner 

because of the investigation for cases which can be investigated in cooperation from both police sites, 

here and in Germany as it was previously the case by direct connection with the Bavarian Police. We 

have established mutual trust already.

Besides professional knowledge, officers who participate in the programme also benefit psychologically, 

get away for a week from the daily routine and receive practical training through different experiences, 

and these have an impact on raising motivation to work.’

Participants from Latvia

Participant

 Vita Kalote, Latvia

Host

Tatia Khocholava, Georgia 

Segment: Researchers

Category: Research and prevention

‘As a police officer, I was curious how Georgia has made up their level of educations, their politics. It 

is different from Latvia but still challenging. I have discovered that there could be different ways to 

become police officers and still be given great opportunities for that.

I believe it is important to talk to professionals and use chance to ask questions, learn other experiences 

and practice on daily basis. See other organisations related to my own job and see how cooperation is. 

As a police officer, I often cooperate with social service, orphans’ court, rescue services etc. In addition, 

this cooperation is great to learn from exchange country partners their way of cooperation.

Some of the positive outcomes included in my learning that crime prevention system and programmes 

are very well organised in Georgia, something new for me and useful in the near future to build up 

cooperation with prosecutors in field of second level prevention. I was also reminded to involve more 

social services and youth workers in police daily prevention work that could help to decrease relapse. 

Collaboration with entrepreneurs or public authorities to find out more professional input for projects 

related to youth interests was also highlighted.

Exchange Programme brochure 2017Participants from Kosovo

Participant

 Ismet Hodaj, Kosovo

Host

Andreas Vllachos, Greece 

Segment: General

Category: Trafficking in human beings

‘I can say that it was a very good match 

with the hosting colleague from 

Greece, because his experience with 

illegal migration and the rank he has 

are what I expected from a partner in 

an Exchange Programme.

Now I have a better knowledge of 

duties and work of the Greek Police, 

because for me this is the first time 

that I have been in contact with police 

officers from Greece.

Also, having considered that Greek 

Police is part of some International Po-

lice Organisation with a huge experience, I had the opportunity to gain experience from different fields 

such as: illegal migration, managing detained persons return, conducting passport controls etc.

The issues I consider most important or interesting for other colleagues are: having a good communica-

tion with your exchange partner and getting to know the culture of the hosting country.

This Exchange Programme to my opinion is a good way of sharing experiences and building 

professional networks, I am really pleased to have been part of it.’

Participant

 Florije Gashi, Kosovo

Host

Helga Meyer, Germany 

Segment: General

Category: Cocaine trafficking

‘The Exchange Programme is very useful for meeting other officers from different countries. This match 

was very successful for me and my exchange partner. I have seen lots of practices that can be useful 

and can improve the future work of Kosovo Police.

One of the best practices was the visit in BLKA Unit — Investigation of Drug Crimes Committed by Ba-

varian Residents Abroad/Synthetic drugs. The presentation of the “MARIMANGA” investigation case gave 

an insight into cooperation between 
Kosovo Police Drug unit and in Bavarian 
Drug unit which was very successful.

In relation to the positive outcomes of 
the exchange, learning the databases 
in collecting information in drug cases 
was very useful to me. I have also made 
a new friend and professional connec-
tion in Mrs Helga Meyer, which I can 
use, if necessary, for police work.

I do have plans to continue coop-
eration with my exchange partner 
because of the investigation for cases which can be investigated in cooperation from both police sites, 
here and in Germany as it was previously the case by direct connection with the Bavarian Police. We 
have established mutual trust already.

Besides professional knowledge, officers who participate in the programme also benefit psychologically, 
get away for a week from the daily routine and receive practical training through different experiences, 
and these have an impact on raising motivation to work.’

Participants from Latvia

Participant
 Vita Kalote, Latvia

Host
Tatia Khocholava, Georgia 

Segment: Researchers
Category: Research and prevention

‘As a police officer, I was curious how Georgia has made up their level of educations, their politics. It 
is different from Latvia but still challenging. I have discovered that there could be different ways to 
become police officers and still be given great opportunities for that.

I believe it is important to talk to professionals and use chance to ask questions, learn other experiences 
and practice on daily basis. See other organisations related to my own job and see how cooperation is. 
As a police officer, I often cooperate with social service, orphans’ court, rescue services etc. In addition, 
this cooperation is great to learn from exchange country partners their way of cooperation.

Some of the positive outcomes included in my learning that crime prevention system and programmes 
are very well organised in Georgia, something new for me and useful in the near future to build up 
cooperation with prosecutors in field of second level prevention. I was also reminded to involve more 
social services and youth workers in police daily prevention work that could help to decrease relapse. 
Collaboration with entrepreneurs or public authorities to find out more professional input for projects 
related to youth interests was also highlighted.

53

Exchange Programme brochure 2017Looking forward for future cooperation and practical exchange. There were good examples of youth 
projects towards actions in all three levels of prevention. As well, Georgia would be great partner in 
grant projects for prevention and research — focusing on juveniles’ needs/political system.

This programme is a real benefit for the development of new challenges, knowledge, cooperation, 
information exchange and personal growth. You can learn and share!’

Participant
 Ieva Gutovska, Latvia

Host
Monika Kaindl, Germany 

Segment: General
Category: Specific areas and instruments

‘I found my exchange very successful because 
I managed to find a partner organisation cor-
responding to my specific interest in forensic 
examination of animal hair. The week was very 
fruitful and I found it relevant to my work as 
forensic scientist of particular area — fibres, 
animal hair and forensic botany. The main 
focus was on practical work and a hands-on 
session of animal hair databases and electronic 
animal hair identification key. But I also had 
time to talk to colleagues of forensic botany 
and did learn a lot of useful information.

I will definitely continue to use electronical animal hair identification key as well as expand animal hair 
collection. I’ve written purchase list of necessary tools, instruments and equipment as well as literature. 
I am planning to edit State Forensic Science Bureau of Latvia (SFSB) SOP’s, adding blank form for animal 
hair examination, as well as prepare power point presentation for my colleagues, including photos.

I found easier to contact different forensic scientist in particular area if I have met them before, to ask 
for an advice and guidance on different topics regarding casework. A building of network is very useful. 
And I appreciate that colleagues from Germany were able to find a full working week for training.’

54

Exchange Programme brochure 2017Participants from Lithuania

Participant
 Aurelija Puraite, PhD, Lithuania

Segment: Researchers
Category: Fundamental Rights

Host
Prof. Dr Pablo de Diego Ángeles, Spain 

‘I think the matching was appropriate. My host in Spain Prof. Dr Pablo de Diego Ángeles is a vice-dean of 
Law Faculty at the National Distance Learning university (UNED), both of us had experience in teaching 
law enforcement officials, and both of us also had to deal with issues related to European courses and 
programmes (including those organised by CEPOL).

Also, with regards to our aims for this Exchange Programme, we were both interested in an overall 
insight of the methods and organisation of training in the counterpart’s police system.

As the reform of higher education (as well as education of law enforcement officials) is taking place now 
in Lithuania, the good practice of distance learning possibility may be applied in our national educa-
tional system. I shared the ideas with my colleagues and superiors about possible methods of distance 
learning that I had a possibility to explore in UNED.

One of the greatest positive outcomes was the understanding that the police officials in Spain (mainly 
Guardia Civil) are very highly appreciated and respected by public, which, unfortunately, is not the case 
in Lithuania. Acknowledging this historical and cultural difference was one of the lightening and inspir-
ing ideas of the Exchange Programme.

I was very pleased and I am very thankful to all people who spent their precious time with me. 
Colleagues from Guardia Civil academy were very well prepared; they provided me with very useful 
information about educational system of police officers on Spain.’

Participant
 Renata Konarskiene, Lithuania

Host
Ana Chagunava, Georgia 

Segment: General
Category: Specific areas and instruments

‘My visit was organised at the highest level. My host was very communicative, friendly and helpful. She 
has prepared for me a very interesting programme not only for work, but also a cultural and historical 
programme about the beautiful city of Tbilisi.

During a meeting with the Director of the Forensic Criminalistics Department we discussed and com-
pared Lithuanian and Georgian phonoscopy experts’ main questions and problems.

55

Exchange Programme brochure 2017I visited other sections in the department: 
Ballistics, Fingerprints and marks, Biology, 
Chemistry- toxicology, Micro-analysis, Fi-
bres, Arsons, Environment and Explosives, 
Paint and Glasses, Documents and hand-
writings, Economic, Portrait expertise, 
Digital technologies, Digital audio-video 
signals. Also the Forensic Criminalistics 
Department has a wonderful museum, 
which houses a collection of weapons, 
documents and other items related to 
research conducted in the department.

All experts of speech and audio analysis department were professional, helpful and motivated when 
presenting to me laboratories, facilities, hardware and software used in forensic practice; material 
evidences registration system, which provide barcode for each object and photographing; investigative 
records preparation for the expertise and comparative speech records (dependent on speech recorded 
in the investigative records) taking techniques, methods and methodologies; practice of all expertise 
representation in courts of law; performance of the linguistic and electro-acoustic analysis; principles 
and examples of expertise act writing; the final results, conclusions and appendixes representation.

During my visit there was an opportunity to test the software that colleagues use to identify by voice 
and also to establish the authenticity of sound recordings.

I participated in the taking of comparative samples of the voice, and also I had the opportunity to get 
acquainted with the detailed linguistic analysis (in our laboratory this analysis is not conducted at such 
a high level). It was even more interesting because the researcher was a Lithuanian who spoke Russian.

The Exchange Programme provided an opportunity to acquire new knowledge in the field of audio anal-
ysis (phonoscopic) examination, compare research methods when solving the same or similar problems.’

Participants from Luxembourg

Participant
 Jean-Claude Bisenius, Luxembourg

Host
Jukka Mustapaa, Finland 

Segment: General
Category: Law enforcement cooperation and information exchange

‘The first day we spent at the National Bureau of Investigation from Finland at Vantaa. All of the staff 
were very obliging and they showed me their tools and supplies for work on the different levels, such as 
Interpol, Sirene, Europol, Enfast team, forensics lab and national levels.

The tools and procedures which are used by the NBI FI are similar like in Luxembourg only adjusted for 
the Finnish police forces.

56

Exchange Programme brochure 2017I visited other sections in the department: 

Ballistics, Fingerprints and marks, Biology, 

Chemistry- toxicology, Micro-analysis, Fi-

bres, Arsons, Environment and Explosives, 

Paint and Glasses, Documents and hand-

writings, Economic, Portrait expertise, 

Digital technologies, Digital audio-video 

signals. Also the Forensic Criminalistics 

Department has a wonderful museum, 

which houses a collection of weapons, 

documents and other items related to 

research conducted in the department.

All experts of speech and audio analysis department were professional, helpful and motivated when 

presenting to me laboratories, facilities, hardware and software used in forensic practice; material 

evidences registration system, which provide barcode for each object and photographing; investigative 

records preparation for the expertise and comparative speech records (dependent on speech recorded 

in the investigative records) taking techniques, methods and methodologies; practice of all expertise 

representation in courts of law; performance of the linguistic and electro-acoustic analysis; principles 

and examples of expertise act writing; the final results, conclusions and appendixes representation.

During my visit there was an opportunity to test the software that colleagues use to identify by voice 

and also to establish the authenticity of sound recordings.

I participated in the taking of comparative samples of the voice, and also I had the opportunity to get 

acquainted with the detailed linguistic analysis (in our laboratory this analysis is not conducted at such 

a high level). It was even more interesting because the researcher was a Lithuanian who spoke Russian.

We also had a very interesting and suspenseful visit at the crime Museum at the National Bureau of In-
vestigation from Finland. This museum is only available for police officers; the exhibits inside arise from 
real cases handled by the Finnish Police and Custom/Border Guard.

Last day of my visit at the National Bureau of Investigation began with debriefing at NBI Vantaa, later in 
the morning we drove to the Harbour area and we visited the command centre of Gulf of Finland Coast 
Guard District. Our host presented us all the maritime operations which are directly controlled by here.

After the presentation we drove by patrol boat to an outland post on a small island near the bay of 
Helsinki. A very nice time and job experience with my friend Jukka Mustapää from National Bureau of 
Investigation came to an end at the Helsinki airport.’

Participants from Malta

Participant
 Joseph Busuttil, Malta

Segment: General
Category: Child sexual exploitation

Host
Keith White, Ireland 

‘I think that I was matched with the right person as he had a lot of interesting facts and views on the 
related subject (child exploitation). It was arranged for me to meet with several investigating officers in 
different departments in Ireland and discuss real live cases with them where I could compare the inves-
tigating techniques used in the two countries.

Through the Garda Cybercrime unit I have discovered new techniques in combating child sexual ex-
ploitation which will help me in combating this type of crime.

The Exchange Programme provided an opportunity to acquire new knowledge in the field of audio anal-

ysis (phonoscopic) examination, compare research methods when solving the same or similar problems.’

At the child interview section I noticed that there were slight things which differed from the system 
used in our country and we could improve on that during interviews.

Participants from Luxembourg

 Jean-Claude Bisenius, Luxembourg

Participant

Host

Jukka Mustapaa, Finland 

During the visit at different court rooms and the hearing of some court cases which were going on I saw 
that the system is quite similar to the one we use in Malta. I got some ideas which I shall try to adopt in 
Malta. Although the law is slightly different in the child sexual exploitation area, I might be able to adopt 
this system and have a test case.

Segment: General

Category: Law enforcement cooperation and information exchange

I plan to continue the cooperation with my exchange partner as we may help each other in our 
investigations.’

‘The first day we spent at the National Bureau of Investigation from Finland at Vantaa. All of the staff 

were very obliging and they showed me their tools and supplies for work on the different levels, such as 

Interpol, Sirene, Europol, Enfast team, forensics lab and national levels.

The tools and procedures which are used by the NBI FI are similar like in Luxembourg only adjusted for 

the Finnish police forces.

57

Exchange Programme brochure 2017Participant
 Robert Vella, Malta

Host
V.H., France 

Segment: General
Category: Public order — policing major events

‘I was matched with the right person. V.H. is an officer specialised in public order policing, and one of his 
main duties is to manage several events, major and not, that occur in France.

During my stay in France I was able to observe the planning processes of some major events, and I also 
went on various sites to watch how the members of the Gendarmerie perform their duties.

Although Malta cannot be compared to France, we still lack some useful equipment which might be of 
great help during major event; however, I foresee that costs to implement certain measures and to intro-
duce new equipment will be a liability for a way forward. Moreover, having a centralised office, where all 
the deployment for major events can be made from will surely be of great benefit for the Malta Police 
Force.

The fact of being part of disciplined forces with many common issues in this globalised world helps to 
share many practices. Much of the work done in my country is also performed in France, however meth-
ods and priorities may differ. Also let’s not forget that France has a population of millions whilst Malta 
has a population of less than half a million.

We intend to have a permanent cooperation with my exchange partner, especially in the field of public 
order. For sure, sharing ideas and information with a counterpart working in such a large country will 
help me enrich my knowledge.’

Participants from Moldova

Participant
 Elena Gherta, Moldova

Host
Cristina Hierro Carrero, Spain 

Segment: General
Category: Law enforcement cooperation and information exchange

‘I would like to convey my sincere thanks to all CEPOL team for matching me with the perfect person. 
My counterpart, Ms. Cristina Hierro Carrero is CEPOL contact point in Guardia Civil. So, being NEC in the 
Republic of Moldova, for me was very interesting to be acquainted with the activities done by her, as 
well as, by CEPOL Unit from Spain. Also, according to my duties related to enhancing the bilateral 
cooperation with other law enforcement agencies from other countries, thanks to my counterpart, we 
established friendship relations between our institutions.

58

Exchange Programme brochure 2017Participant

 Robert Vella, Malta

Segment: General

Category: Public order — policing major events

Host

V.H., France 

‘I was matched with the right person. V.H. is an officer specialised in public order policing, and one of his 

main duties is to manage several events, major and not, that occur in France.

During my stay in France I was able to observe the planning processes of some major events, and I also 

went on various sites to watch how the members of the Gendarmerie perform their duties.

Although Malta cannot be compared to France, we still lack some useful equipment which might be of 

great help during major event; however, I foresee that costs to implement certain measures and to intro-

duce new equipment will be a liability for a way forward. Moreover, having a centralised office, where all 

the deployment for major events can be made from will surely be of great benefit for the Malta Police 

Force.

The fact of being part of disciplined forces with many common issues in this globalised world helps to 

share many practices. Much of the work done in my country is also performed in France, however meth-

ods and priorities may differ. Also let’s not forget that France has a population of millions whilst Malta 

has a population of less than half a million.

We intend to have a permanent cooperation with my exchange partner, especially in the field of public 

order. For sure, sharing ideas and information with a counterpart working in such a large country will 

help me enrich my knowledge.’

Participants from Moldova

Participant

 Elena Gherta, Moldova

Segment: General

Host

Cristina Hierro Carrero, Spain 

Category: Law enforcement cooperation and information exchange

‘I would like to convey my sincere thanks to all CEPOL team for matching me with the perfect person. 

My counterpart, Ms. Cristina Hierro Carrero is CEPOL contact point in Guardia Civil. So, being NEC in the 

Republic of Moldova, for me was very interesting to be acquainted with the activities done by her, as 

well as, by CEPOL Unit from Spain. Also, according to my duties related to enhancing the bilateral 

cooperation with other law enforcement agencies from other countries, thanks to my counterpart, we 

established friendship relations between our institutions.

Taking into consideration the aspiration of the Republic 
of Moldova to accede to the European Union, likewise, 
the benefits of the Exchange Programme, I am convinced 
that this programme is a good opportunity for the third 
countries to use the best practices from the EU countries 
and establish a partnership in different domains.

The experience learned from my counterpart will help me 
and the General Police Inspectorate to improve the level of 
coordination of these programmes. The ‘‘lessons learned’’ 
regarding the participants and their participation in the 
event mentioned above will help us better to implement 
this Exchange Programme.

Some positive outcomes were my visit to different units of 
the Guardia Civil, such as: Officers Academy Aranjuez, Inter-
national Department of Guardia Civil General Directorate, 
CEPOL Unit Spain and Criminal Investigation Unit. Thanks 
to this visit, I have new contacts with the colleagues from 
other units and this will facilitate the further cooperation.

Also meeting and knowing my colleagues from CEPOL Unit Spain will help me better to coordinate the 
Exchange Programmes with the participants from Spain.

The Agenda was very well defined and structured, I had the honour to participate in the Guardia Civil 
Parade regarding the celebration of 173 years since its foundation.

As a later feedback, thanks to this visit, we established the cooperation between our institutions (Police 
and Guardia Civil) and during 2018 the chief of the General Police Inspectorate will conduct an official 
visit at Guardia Civil.’

Participant
 Sergiu Gherman, Moldova

Host
Nino Barkaia, Georgia 

Segment: General
Category: Planning and command of Union missions

‘The person I was matched with was right. He’s experienced in the field. He has an excellent authority in 
the workforce. He introduced me and brought me useful information in various areas of police activity.

The exchange of experience was useful to me and to the subdivision in which I act. I got acquainted 
with the technique and the informational programmes that facilitate the activity of the police. I will 
propose amending the legal framework on patrolling police duties.

59

Exchange Programme brochure 2017Some of the best outcomes included my 
acquaintance with the possibility of elec-
tronic registration of telephone statements. 
In the Republic of Moldova the information 
in question is manually entered and then 
transferred to the electronic register.

I also visited the Joint Operations Centre. 
During this visit we took over the practices 
to monitor the operational situation.

Thanks a lot for the opportunity. I am 
convinced that CEPOL is an important tool 
in police development.’

Participants from Montenegro

Participant
 Snezana Kadovic, Montenegro

Host
O.K., Ukraine 

Segment: Trainers
Category: Leadership, language development, train the trainers

‘I was matched with a person who showed me everything I was interested in.

Amongst many other things, the organisation of International Cooperation Department and the 
method ology of teaching English Language could be useful for my work.

Other positive outcomes included getting 
familiar with high police education and 
English classes, as well as with vocational 
police training.

We are definitely planning to continue 
the cooperation. Since we are planning 
and doing the feasibility study for high 
police education, we have already got the 
curricula and all the necessary information 
concerning the accreditation process. We 
are also communicating in other areas, 
including various international activities.’

60

Exchange Programme brochure 2017Participants from the Netherlands

Participant
 Richard Martens, the Netherlands

Host
Manuel Damian Cantero, Spain 

Segment: General
Category: Firearms trafficking

‘My exchange was successful due to the fact that I already knew my host, Manuel Damian Cantero. We 
both are part of the EMPACT Firearms programme. Therefore, he was able to provide me with an excel-
lent programme suited for me.

This exchange was more about understanding the methodology of the way the National Police and 
Guardia Civil work, and what the possibilities and limits are. I could benefit from this because I extended 
my network and learned whom to address on certain topics.

In relation to positive outcomes, a better network and a better knowledge about LEA structure in Spain is 
very useful. I also met my colleagues of the Firearms team in person and I was able to speak to the driver 
of EMPACT Firearms. This direct way of communicating is very powerful and stronger than 10 emails…

I am really grateful that CEPOL sees the value of this kind of international cooperation and is willing to 
fund this project. Policing in Firearms is mostly always international so you need a certain level of 
knowledge and network to be able to act.’

Participant
 Marco Corradin, the Netherlands

Host
T.O., Poland 

Segment: General
Category: Cyber attacks

‘T.O. is a cybercrime investigator that has impressive cases in his portfolio. He has multiple years of ex-
perience in cybercrime cases in which he has done forensics, analysis and house searches. Even though 
the core business differs between our agencies, the technical fundamentals for conducting these cases 
greatly overlap.

A lot of their best practices are also used by our agency. However, some of the operational tactics and 
differences in their laws inspired me to take the knowledge of open-source tools and work on the speed 
of investigations. Some will not be possible because our laws are simply different, but we should at least 
look carefully at optimising our main investigation process.

Concerning the positive outcomes of the exchange, first I’d like to mention the work environment. The 
atmosphere was very friendly and pleasant. They work with respect and trust in each other. It was inspir-
ing to see how this atmosphere laid a fundamental for all the work being done within the department.

61

Exchange Programme brochure 2017Secondly the collaboration. I am convinced that during the CEPOL programme we established a rela-
tionship between our agencies that ensures collaboration on an operational level. This is already been 
done in practice.

And lastly the open-source tools. From my visit at the National Police Headquarters Cybercrime Bureau 
I talked with forensics and they shared tools which I never heard of before. This will be an asset for our 
agency. I will share this with my colleagues.

I was positively surprised by the level of knowledge and professionalism. The technical infrastructure, 
type of cases and organisational structure impressed me. The buildings, facilities, equipment were very 
modern, like their kidnapping centre. I usually tell non-law enforcement people that our work is nothing 
like the CSI shows on television, but their kidnapping centre looked exactly like it came out of the mov-
ies. Very modern and high tech with top-notch equipment and tools.’

Participants from Poland

Participant
 Anetta Kadej, Poland

Segment: General
Category: Excise fraud

Host
M.R., Bulgaria 

‘My exchange partner was the right match as we both had a similar experience as field auditors, we 
both work on fiscal risk analysis, we could easily identify similarities of our duties, we could discuss prac-
tical problems dealing with our work, we could easily discuss details of MTIC fraud, audit procedure and 
fiscal risk analysis approach, and we share the same opinion on importance of Exchange Programme.

During my visit in General Directorate Combating Organised Crime — Money Laundering Unit I had an 
opportunity to know general view on financial investigation. This was interesting and important for me 
because one of my duties is to cooperate with General Financial Inspector in cases of money laundering.

During my visit in Interagency Coordination Centre I observed real-time control of the movement of risk 
goods and cargo done by representatives of the NRA, the National Police General Directorate, the Com-
bat Organised Crime General Directorate, the Border Police General Directorate, the State Agency for 
National Security, the Prosecution, the Customs Agency and the Automobile Administration Executive 
Agency. I realised that real-time audit and real-time cooperation is the most efficient way of exchanging 
information.

During my visit at the Kulata–Promachonas border checkpoint (between Bulgaria and Greece) I ob-
served border control being performed. I was able to discuss with border officers details of their work 
and share my opinion on risk which deals with Schengen Agreement.

Implementation of dedicated software tool for fiscal risk management is expected in the nearest future. 
It was really interesting to see how it works in practice. As a benefit of this I could be able to prepare 

62

Exchange Programme brochure 2017the right flow of information to prepare better for the start-up of such software. It is also possible to 
incorporate in my work some of the methods of evaluation of fiscal risk analysis.

I am going to cooperate with my exchange partner. We are going to exchange information and help 
each other in everyday work. Direct contact is the most efficient way of exchanging information. That is 
why before starting official administrative procedure of legal assistance I am going to ask my partner for 
an advice, help and support.’

Participant
 Magdalena Kulik, Poland

Segment: General
Category: Counterfeit goods

Host
Ramon Deza, Spain 

‘From my point of view, I was matched with the right person even though my host and I work in 
different customs areas.

We tackle the problem of smuggling 
counterfeit goods in different ways but 
I had the possibility to work in various 
divisions so all that secondments gave 
me the opportunity to gain knowledge 
about a wide range of customs duties 
and those similar to my host’s every 
day responsibilities as well.

During my exchange I had an opportu-
nity to visit different Customs Divisions 
in Customs Office, at the sea port or 
at the airport and compare it with the 
structure of my administration and tasks 
performed by Polish Customs and Tax 
Control Service. Furthermore, I had meetings with the Civil Guard to obtain more information about their 
role in protection of borders and cooperation with the Agencia Tributaria. Moreover, incredibly interesting 
for me was the meeting with the Customs’ crew who is responsible for patrolling coastal waters.’

‘In my opinion, the Exchange Programme gave me a lot of new experience, possibility to share and 
expand my knowledge and opportunity to see Customs from a wider perspective. I’m grateful for the 
possibility to participate in CEPOL Exchange Programme. It was incredible precious experience for me.

The best quota which comes to my mind and describes the CEPOL Exchange Programme perfectly is 
Benjamin Franklin’s sentence: “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn”.’

63

Exchange Programme brochure 2017Participant
 Marta Swierzbinowicz, Poland

Host
Zurab Chichua, Georgia 

Segment: General
Category: Law enforcement cooperation and information exchange

‘Considering the tasks of our work, I think we were matched well. But there were differences in our ranks 
that made me not feel comfortable at the beginning (my partner is a head of Unit, I’m just a specialist) 
I didn’t know if he preferred a decision-maker and a more experienced person or not. But as I said at the 
beginning. Similarities in our work made both of us feel satisfied after our exchange visits.

I presented the main aspects of my visit to my management. We discussed about the system of face 
recognition a lot. But it is not possible to use such things in Poland because of a different system of data 
protection. Many good ideas are worth to discuss but their incorporation is difficult because it depends 
on governmental decision, not mine.

We exchanged experiences about joint patrols that our countries made with other countries and when 
I came back I discovered that Georgia asked Polish officers for participating in joint patrols in ski resorts 
during winter season. After my visit I can prepare documents taking into consideration the knowledge 
I got during my visit there, especially about their law system and system of bilateral agreements.

We exchanged views about different forms of bilateral cooperation and about their legal basis. Our 
countries cooperate in very similar way but with different partners.

Georgia has problem with traffic road safety, we discussed about possible ways of improving this. I rec-
ommended participating in meetings organised by TISPOL or other UE Agencies or Groups.

After my visit I’m impressed about the system of face recognition that I saw in the Central Camera Sur-
veillance Centre and I would like to write article to our police magazine about this system. My partner 
knows about my plans so he said that he can help me if I need some more information in this topic. It 
means that probably we will cooperate also after the end of the programme.’

Participants from Portugal

Participant
  Raul de Campos e Lencastre Brito Coelho, Portugal

Host
Adam Matyi, Hungary 

Segment: General
Category: Law enforcement cooperation and information exchange

‘The match was perfect. We have similar professional experience and also because we work at corre-
sponding offices (Hungarian and Portuguese ARO).

I had the possibility to learn more about Hungarian Police system on Asset Recovery, and to meet some 
of the main entities involved in the process.

64

Exchange Programme brochure 2017Segment: General

Category: Law enforcement cooperation and information exchange

‘Considering the tasks of our work, I think we were matched well. But there were differences in our ranks 

that made me not feel comfortable at the beginning (my partner is a head of Unit, I’m just a specialist) 

I didn’t know if he preferred a decision-maker and a more experienced person or not. But as I said at the 

beginning. Similarities in our work made both of us feel satisfied after our exchange visits.

I presented the main aspects of my visit to my management. We discussed about the system of face 

recognition a lot. But it is not possible to use such things in Poland because of a different system of data 

protection. Many good ideas are worth to discuss but their incorporation is difficult because it depends 

on governmental decision, not mine.

We exchanged experiences about joint patrols that our countries made with other countries and when 

I came back I discovered that Georgia asked Polish officers for participating in joint patrols in ski resorts 

during winter season. After my visit I can prepare documents taking into consideration the knowledge 

I got during my visit there, especially about their law system and system of bilateral agreements.

We exchanged views about different forms of bilateral cooperation and about their legal basis. Our 

countries cooperate in very similar way but with different partners.

Georgia has problem with traffic road safety, we discussed about possible ways of improving this. I rec-

ommended participating in meetings organised by TISPOL or other UE Agencies or Groups.

After my visit I’m impressed about the system of face recognition that I saw in the Central Camera Sur-

veillance Centre and I would like to write article to our police magazine about this system. My partner 

knows about my plans so he said that he can help me if I need some more information in this topic. It 

means that probably we will cooperate also after the end of the programme.’

Participants from Portugal

  Raul de Campos e Lencastre Brito Coelho, Portugal

Participant

Host

Adam Matyi, Hungary 

Segment: General

Category: Law enforcement cooperation and information exchange

‘The match was perfect. We have similar professional experience and also because we work at corre-

sponding offices (Hungarian and Portuguese ARO).

I had the possibility to learn more about Hungarian Police system on Asset Recovery, and to meet some 

of the main entities involved in the process.

I also had the opportunity to establish new professional 
contacts.

Seeing the Hungarian ARO way of working led me 
to have new ideas for the Portuguese office, such as 
uniting the criminal case and the asset recovery proce-
dure. Also I was seeing the new and modern education 
institution where the public servants have to go to in 
order to become policemen. One of the subjects taught 
in the course is on asset recovery procedures. So it is 
certain that with these conditions the Hungarians will in 
the future have a highly professional police in these matters. It would be positive to have this approach 
in Portugal.

I hope that it will be possible to continue the cooperation with the Hungarian colleagues.’

Participant
 Jose Regueiras, Portugal

Segment: General
Category: Excise Fraud

Host
Evdoxia Genikomsaki, Greece 

‘I strongly believe I was matched with the right person because of the outcome derived from my partic-
ipation to the CEPOL Exchange Programme.

To my surprise though I was matched with a customs officer working in a field similar to mine and at the 
same time so different from mine. So this matching procedure led to broadening my horizons, giving 
new perspective to my career goals.

I would like to highlight the following positive outcomes: I could familiarise with the Excise Duty Fraud 
fight from a whole new perspective. The customs office I visited is equally focusing in preventing fiscal 
crime, via close and constant monitoring of its subjects, as well as fighting divergent, from legal frames 
activity. Also sincere, open discussions took place that lead not only to new information or experience 
but also to comfort and unity through commonly shared problems encountered on duty from all the 
law enforcement officers. The success stories of Alexandroupolis Customs Office against very important 
border crimes are inspiring and motivating to say the least. Gave me new perspective and the desire to 
research more on how to approach similar issues in my home country.

Being part of the CEPOL Exchange Programme enriched me with benefits that exceeded my expec-
tations. The development of a new communication network that has resulted from my experience in 
the programme and meeting so many highly trained professionals, who have remarkable effect in their 
territory can only be beneficial.’

65

Exchange Programme brochure 2017Participant
 João Manuel Esteves dos Santos, Portugal

Host
Doru Vasile, Romania  

Segment: General
Category: Excise Fraud

‘There are several reasons that made Doru Vasile a perfect match for my Exchange Programme, for ex-
ample we are the same age, have similar working methods (despite the strong institutional differences) 
and also (and considering the background and training differences) the same mindset towards work 
objectives.

We also work with the same kind of subject (both excise tax and vat frauds), which made it easier to 
understand each other, and each other’s work.

Our working experience and also training background differences (considering that I work as a tax 
officer in a military institution, while he is a tax inspector with a college background in a non-military 
institution), became an advantage due to our different opinions and approaches (for instance we work 
in a different way on road inspections (merchandise movement), as well as what concerns internal or-
ganisation and structure). However, all these differences became a way to have different points of view 
in several topics and subjects.

The society perception of the importance of taxes is the basis to have a more tax compliant society (and 
also and more important a better society), so I think that we should adopt the ANAF “warning/request” 
towards invoice, because this measure bring us close to the costumers, both local and foreigners.

The way that ANAF uses information to lead their inspection actions, for instance both Regional depart-
ments that I had the opportunity to know (Bucharest and Constanta) uses information analysis in a level 
that allows them to give specific targets to their agents. This way to work allows them to maximise the 
inspection action (from a results point of view) and also provides a global picture that can be used from 
a central/national level.

Besides the information use, also the way that ANAF uses social media network to inform the Romanian 
costumers about their future activity, and past results is a measure that can be adapted/modified to the 
Portuguese UAF and Portuguese society. In order to have a different approach towards compliance of 
the tax rules and regulations.

This programme allowed me to experience in loco how a foreign tax authority with a totally different 
structure but the same generic mission works, plans investigations and inspections. And this knowl-
edge, among the personal contact with some of ANAF staff is one of most important outcomes with 
likely possibilities to have positive consequences in the future.’

66

Exchange Programme brochure 2017 João Manuel Esteves dos Santos, Portugal

Participant

Host

Doru Vasile, Romania  

Segment: General

Category: Excise Fraud

‘There are several reasons that made Doru Vasile a perfect match for my Exchange Programme, for ex-

ample we are the same age, have similar working methods (despite the strong institutional differences) 

and also (and considering the background and training differences) the same mindset towards work 

objectives.

Our working experience and also training background differences (considering that I work as a tax 

officer in a military institution, while he is a tax inspector with a college background in a non-military 

institution), became an advantage due to our different opinions and approaches (for instance we work 

in a different way on road inspections (merchandise movement), as well as what concerns internal or-

ganisation and structure). However, all these differences became a way to have different points of view 

in several topics and subjects.

The society perception of the importance of taxes is the basis to have a more tax compliant society (and 

also and more important a better society), so I think that we should adopt the ANAF “warning/request” 

towards invoice, because this measure bring us close to the costumers, both local and foreigners.

The way that ANAF uses information to lead their inspection actions, for instance both Regional depart-

ments that I had the opportunity to know (Bucharest and Constanta) uses information analysis in a level 

that allows them to give specific targets to their agents. This way to work allows them to maximise the 

inspection action (from a results point of view) and also provides a global picture that can be used from 

a central/national level.

Besides the information use, also the way that ANAF uses social media network to inform the Romanian 

costumers about their future activity, and past results is a measure that can be adapted/modified to the 

Portuguese UAF and Portuguese society. In order to have a different approach towards compliance of 

the tax rules and regulations.

This programme allowed me to experience in loco how a foreign tax authority with a totally different 

structure but the same generic mission works, plans investigations and inspections. And this knowl-

edge, among the personal contact with some of ANAF staff is one of most important outcomes with 

likely possibilities to have positive consequences in the future.’

We also work with the same kind of subject (both excise tax and vat frauds), which made it easier to 

understand each other, and each other’s work.

During the exchange we were able to discuss cases both from Romania and from Hungary involving 
modus operandi in skimming crimes.

Participants from Romania

Participant
 Andrei Grigoras, Romania

Segment: General
Category: Payment Card Fraud

Host
Csaba Beres, Hungary 

‘The match with the Hungarian partner was perfect, as both units are dealing on daily basis with cases 
involving payment card fraud, especially skimming on ATMs.

About my visit in Hungary, I can say it was stimulating and educational, both from the professional and 
cultural point of view. Regarding the professional experience, my partner Csaba BERES presented me 
the structure of the Ministry of Interior and national police and the laws regarding cybercrime.

During my stay in Hungary, we talked and reviewed together different situations and cases regarding 
credit card fraud (skimming and black-box).

We also reviewed a case in which Romanians and Hungarians are investigated and we found the best in-
vestigation methods and the international official channels through which we can communicate faster.

The cooperation between us will continue for sure, regarding the similar cases we are dealing with.’

Participant
 Cornel Barbu, Romania

Host
Germany 

Segment: General
Category: Specific areas and instruments

‘I consider that I was matched with the right person because we both work in similar units, with closely 
related tasks, and also because strong cooperation needs to exist between Romania and Germany due 
to the large number of fugitives cases that our countries deal with together.

During the exchange I learned that the German unit has an internal database where every criminal/
fugitive has operative mentions implemented by every police officer that had a case of the perpetrator.

I was also introduced to all the police officers from the Fugitive Unit and we exchanged business cards, 
so our future cooperation will be better and more productive.

67

Exchange Programme brochure 2017I gathered a great amount of information about the online search tools and methods used by German 
police officers in their cases as well.

We will continue the cooperation because Romania has a lot of cases of fugitives hiding in Germany, but 
Germany also has cases of fugitives hiding in Romania.’

Participants from Serbia

Participant
 Zvonimir Ivanovic, Serbia

Segment: Trainers
Category: Child Sexual Exploitation

Host
Alexander Huber, Austria 

‘This was the right match because of similarities in interests and involvements for both of us. My host 
Alexander Huber heard right and answered even before I was finishing a sentence, whenever I wanted 
something done he had already half answered or done it. There were no language barriers, since my 
host knew my language and this was an additional advantage in communication, whenever some from 
hosting country could not answer in English my host was there to clarify.

First positive outcome for me would be the ability to see and participate in actions of trainers and police 
staff in other country, especially one in EU, and also the opportunity to exchange ideas and plans with 
trainers and police personnel in that country.

I had the possibility to be heard 
and listened by other police staff 
in another country with same re-
spect and same level of attention 
as in my country.

There are various opportunities 
and possibilities in research and 
improvement of training practice, 
goals, aims and objectives of train-
ing. We planned to exchange ma-
terials and modules for training.’

68

Exchange Programme brochure 2017Participant
  Ivana Bjelovuk, Serbia

Host
M.G.K, Croatia 

Segment: General
Category: Specific areas and instruments

‘I think that I was matched with the right person, because I am interested in ballistics, GSR, tool marks and 
other forensic expertise, accreditation of the forensic laboratories which is the occupation of my host. We 
have a lot of in common when it comes to forensic science, ballistics and technical expertise.

As I work as a professor in Academy of Criminalistics and Police Studies, Belgrade, Serbia, I will present to 
my students these best forensic practices. According to my good professional relations with my 
colleagues who do the expertise in ballistics in the Ministry of Interior I will present them the new 
accredited methods of expertise.

During my visit I saw the use of 
accredited methods in the bal-
listic labs which are not in use in 
National Forensic Centre in Serbia. 
I also saw the documents which 
have to be prepared for accredi-
tation of each method according 
to the international standard ISO 
17025.

With my host we plan to do some 
researches and publish it in inter-
national journal. Also, we plan to do review paper about the new methods in ballistics that are in use in 
Croatia and wider and publish it in some Serbian journal.

The Exchange Programme is very useful experience as I met a lot of colleagues, we exchanged the 
experience, good police practice in different forensic fields and made the professional network. I will 
recommend it to my colleagues in Serbia.’

Participants from Slovakia

Participant
David Vlcek, Slovakia 

Host
K.K., Estonia 

Segment: General
Category: Specific areas and instruments

‘I was matched with right person. The laboratory is established on similar level as ours, so we could 
discuss the same problems we face in our laboratories. All experts at Estonian DNA lab speaks fluently 
English, so we had no “discussion” problems.

69

Exchange Programme brochure 2017Some of the best practices included perfectly prepared programme with all details for participants, 
strong anticontamination rules at laboratory, good categorisation of work for lab technicians and very 
nicely established resting room for workers, wide activity programme for employees out of work time 
(sport competition activity, cultural meetings etc.). Their personal politics are very good: education of 
experts, frequent visits and meetings, conferences abroad, English language courses for everyone.

I´d like to incorporate strong anticontamination rules at our laboratory, I´ve started discussions about 
the topic at work meetings. I´d also like to establish a resting room but it will take long time I expect. 
There were some good steps at workflow at Estonian labs too, and these are under discussion during 
our meetings, we have to find consensus with my colleagues to incorporate them in all our labs.

I´d like to continue cooperation via email communication or personal visit in the future.’

Participant
Juraj Matejka, Slovakia 

Host
V.F., Latvia 

Segment: General
Category: Specific areas and instruments

‘I think I was correctly ranked. My partner works on the same department as me. His work coincides with 
mine.

The best practices were the proce-
dures that were presented and practi-
cally tested in the laboratory.

Some of the positive outcomes were 
to obtain new contacts, the ability 
to observe ways of working and the 
assumption of further cooperation.

We plan to continue our cooperation. 
We occasionally exchange information 
by e-mail, related to live cases.’

70

Exchange Programme brochure 2017Participants from Slovenia

Participant
 Gabriel Gajsek, Slovenia

Host
Jari-Pekka Pere, Finland

Segment: General
Category: Law enforcement cooperation and information exchange

‘I was matched with the right person. The reason for that is that we arrange everything in advance (pre-
matched exchange). He works on the same field of the International Police Co-operation.

We are both familiar with the regulations and procedures under Europol umbrella and it was really posi-
tive experience to explore and compare procedures in our countries. I think that we both have multiple 
ideas on how to improve procedures in our countries.

I was able to witness the whole procedure of the SIENA messages handling. We started to test new 
procedures of handling of SIENA messages in Slovenia. We are testing for one month now and I believe 
that we will keep the new procedure in place.

The positive outcomes included networking with colleagues from Finland Police, developing trust and 
friendship which are very important for Police Co-operation and gaining knowledge.

We will work close on the Europol field and exchanging ideas and developing best approaches for 
future challenges.’

Participant
 Tomislav Omejec, Slovenia

Host
H.M., Belgium 

Segment: General
Category: Public order — policing in major events

‘I was matched with the right person. My exchange partner was from comparable police forces, (federal 
level) with similar police duties and also had access to colleagues with exact same duties as I have.

Some of the practices such as organisation of work and equipment of permanent football policing 
unit could be implemented in Slovenian police but to gain these I would involve some organisational 
changes and also there is a need for additional funds and personnel.

Best outcome is widening of friendship and acquaintances within police units in Belgium that have 
similar tasks — it’s a good fundament for further international cooperation (exchange of operative in-
formation, good and best practices and knowledge, training work of operatives abroad - such as spotter 
etc.). Since policing public events can also be an international operation (for instance sports events with 
international dimension), it is good to know what kind of participant we can expect from Belgium (for 

71

Exchange Programme brochure 2017instance football hooligans). It was also interesting and useful to compare tactics and equipment of 
police units.

We intend to continue with exchange of operative information and also cooperate with various projects.’

Participants from Spain

Participant
 Rafael Cuesta Villar, Spain

Segment: General
Category: Cocaine Trafficking

Host
Armin Hirsch, Germany 

‘I think the match was completely with the right person, we work in the same area so the exchange was 
so interesting, knowing the way to work of other team, surveillance and monitoring suspects, 
transmission equipment, telephone taping system, training to improve knowledge.

The first positive outcomes were to make 
contacts for future collaboration. It is so 
important for our job to have contacts 
with colleagues of other countries, if it is 
needed you can help them, sharing or 
advancing information.

The other great experience was the 
AMOK incidents training. It is very 
necessary to train for this kind of inci-
dent, as a terrorist attack could happen 
anywhere.

Last but not least, to share experiences and methods of work with the colleagues working in the same 
areas, media like cameras, hidden cameras, tools for surveillance, recording and door openings.

We will continue our cooperation in our daily work looking for suspects, sharing or checking 
information.

The most important for me was to work one day with the German colleagues, looking for information, 
analysing the information and checking this information, making the surveillance and monitoring. It is 
very rewarding.

I think the programme is very well managed, and the three years to wait to participate another time are 
a little bit too much, but at the same time necessary to be accessible for more people.’

72

Exchange Programme brochure 2017Participant
 Rafael Puentes Hernandez, Spain

Host
G.M., France 

Segment: General
Category: Counter-terrorism

‘I consider myself extremely fortunate to be hosted by G.M., he has been very committed with the 
programme, making arrangements to convene meetings with specialised units. Thanks to his work 
experience, he has chosen the most interesting units for my profile.

At a personal level, I have gained a friend 
and a colleague to share professional and 
personal experiences with.

All the technical knowledge that I have 
gained, will be used in my unit investiga-
tions, and the surge of my professional 
network will be an excellent opportunity 
to have a continuous learning about 
methods and procedures to fight against 
ongoing terrorism and for information 
exchange.

I consider fight against ongoing terrorism needs to be addressed from different cultural and police 
points of view. The fight against terrorism requires members with a high degree of commitment and 
with different visions on how to solve it, prepared to adapt to new environments, ways of life, and to 
move for different countries, as they often do. Collaboration between officers from multiple nationalities 
must be the ideal platform to counter the current of terrorism across Europe.

Currently I´m in contact with some colleagues that I have met during my exchange, sharing technical 
knowledge and procedures for investigators, very successful and effective for monitoring profiles. 
I hope we´ll keep in contact by email and participating in some forums of interest for us.’

Participant
 Daniel Zorzo Lopez, Spain

Segment: General
Category: Property Crimes

Host
Madalina Margineanu, Romania 

‘In my case there was a pre-match agreement between us.

The unit of my exchange partner, Criminal Investigations Directorate (DIC), is a central unit who deals 
and coordinates investigations of Property crime committed by itinerant gangs in the whole Romania. 

73

Exchange Programme brochure 2017This best practice is not possible to incorporate in the 
Spanish system due to it needs a complete reorganisa-
tion of the national police system.

DIC have created some target groups, related to most 
important OPC problems in Romania, such as copper 
theft and burglaries in order to fight it with two main 
tools: intelligence led investigations and apply integral 
approach. This practice is almost incorporated in the 
unit I command, but I will apply some improvements 
observed in the DIC, about working procedures.

Spain has very good relations with Romania in police 
cooperation, which includes the deployment of a liaison 
officer from Spain to the DIC.

Romania is participant in the EMPACT OPC priority. That 
circumstance allows the unit to be involved in the Euro-
pean cooperation projects and initiatives related to property crime.

Due to this exchange, we have better understanding of the DIC-Romanian investigative means used to 
combat this cross border criminality. It’s not only to understand the system, also the way police officers 
think. The visit was also useful to strengthen the strategic cooperation projects between both units 
specially coordinating future common action in the framework on the EMPACT OPC. In the exchange, 
several ongoing and former cases were discussed, making debriefings of the mistakes committed, espe-
cially in international cooperation issues. These kinds of discussions will increase the effectiveness of the 
cooperation between Romanian DIC and the Guardia Civil.

In this exchange, there are only benefits. Regarding the administrative organisation of my travel, it was 
perfect.

This exchange has served to strengthen our cooperation, at operative and investigative strategic level. 
This cooperation implies almost daily contact in ongoing cases, and preparation for future issues, not 
only with the exchanges but also with other colleagues from both units.’

Participants from Ukraine

Participant
 Oleksandr Sabadash, Ukraine

Segment: Trainers
Category: Specific areas and instruments

Host
D.T., Estonia

‘My Estonian counterpart for the exchange was appropriately selected, since our positions are almost 
equivalent, we both work in the criminal police. Additionally, I and my colleague work in the area of 

74

Exchange Programme brochure 2017disclosure of crimes related to the illegal possession of vehicles, therefore during the visit additional 
forms and methods were discussed on the fight against crime.

The best practices of my Estonian colleagues are already helping me in clarifying the origin of cars with 
so called “Euro badges” in Ukraine (cars registered in EU countries).

Also a single call number for the service “102” where the operator dispatches the calls to the service for 
further processing needs to be implemented.

Implementation of coherence and exchange of information between the security forces and all execu-
tive agencies will have to wait for appropriate enhancement of Ukrainian legislation.

There were no negative outcomes. Impressions from getting acquainted with the work of law enforce-
ment agencies are only positive.

Cooperation with my exchange partner is ongoing. Communication concerning the cooperation 
started immediately after my return to Ukraine with the help of instant messengers. In addition, during 
my visit to the Republic of Estonia, I contacted many Estonian colleagues for further cooperation.’

Participant
 Oleksandr Siforov, Ukraine

Host
Boban Saranovic, Montenegro 

Segment: Trainers
Category: Leadership, learning, training and language development

‘My partner has been picked successfully, my position 
almost coincides with the position of my exchange 
partner.

We planned to conduct practical classes that will 
simultaneously combine several disciplines such as 
tactical-special training, foreign language, criminal law, 
criminal procedure and forensics.

One of the positive outcomes was to study a foreign 
language by professional orientation combined with 
conducting practical classes on other disciplines. The 
other positive outcome was to observe the work of 
cadets in forensic auditoriums.

In relation to the continuation of our cooperation, we 
are already sharing the data on planning the educational 
process.’

75

Exchange Programme brochure 2017CEPOL Exchange Programme brochure 2017

European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Training

Offices: H-1066 Budapest, Ó utca 27, Hungary • Correspondence: H-1903 Budapest, Pf. 314, Hungary

Telephone: +36 1 803 8030 • Fax: +36 1 803 8032 • E-mail: info@cepol.europa.eu • www.cepol.europa.eu