EULEX in collaboration with a UK Regional Constabulary, Lincolnshire Police, is currently delivering a Command Resilience Course at the Kosovo Academy for Public Safety.

The 8 day course aims to provide Kosovo Police Command with the opportunity to enhance their current skills and expertise when dealing with events requiring public order and public safety planning.

As part of the course, training will focus on setting policy, command protocols, application of tactical parameters, a human rights based decision making model, community impact, media strategy, partnership working and debrief processes.

Mark Dixon, the Program Manager and Head of AUPBM, said that the idea of the course is to enhance KP’s existing capacities by examining the UK model of policing public events or incidents. “The hope is Kosovo Police can draw from this best practice, and can adopt these practices within the context of policing in Kosovo. The security challenges of policing are ever changing and the agencies tasked with tackling these insecurities need to adopt so they can respond effectively’.

Thirty Kosovo Police Officers from all three command levels with Kosovo Police are attending the course.

During the training, participants will use case studies of significant events and take part in discussion with fellow colleagues and trainers in order to share their experiences and knowledge of how to better manage both pre-planned and spontaneous public events and incidents.

Lieutenant Colonel Akrem Racaj, director of specialized trainings in the Kosovo Police emphasized the value of taking part in the training.

“The course provides us with a great opportunity to compare the differing command levels and their functions and how they can be applied to Kosovo Police. This is so we can develop our command activities and strengthen our capacities in effective management to be as professional and efficient as possible”.

Lieutenant Colonel Racaj thanked EULEX and Lincolnshire police for being able to organise a training that is dedicated specifically for the Command Staff and for providing Kosovo police with an experience to learn from the UK policing model.

“For the future, we plan to put this experience into practice even further and adapt what we have learnt to train and pass on to our colleagues at a managerial level of the Kosovo Police” said Akrem Racaj. 

Four UK experts are delivering the training; each of whom have specialist skills related to Command Resilience that include strategic planning, operational delivery, emergency and contingency partnership planning and counter terrorism security coordination. 

Assistant Chief Constable West one of the training team said: “We’re really pleased to be able to share some of the knowledge and learning we have and use in Lincolnshire with the Kosovo Police, specifically areas such as public safety and public order. This is also a potential learning opportunity for us, there will no doubt be areas of practice that we learn about here which we can take away and consider how they might work for us in Lincolnshire”

Reiterating further, he continued “we are incredibly proud to be able to assist with delivering this type of training and hopefully make a difference in a country that has suffered terribly from conflict”.

The training course is part of EULEX’s overall efforts to support Kosovo Police in developing a more sustainable and effective institutional command capacity.