ICITAP Facilitates International Symposium to Counter Violent Extremism

On December 4, ICITAP concluded a three-day symposium, which brought together international senior counterterrorism officials, academic experts, U.S. interagency representatives, and organizations dedicated to policing initiatives and extremism topics. The Washington, DC-based event allowed participants to openly discuss and address current knowledge on community-oriented policing for countering violent extremism (CVE) to further improve mutual exchanges and better connect multilateral cooperation and national implementation of CT and CVE practices. The symposium also addressed topics of mutual interest, including the challenges of policing certain rural and urban areas, new trends in terrorism, women in policing, police academies, strategic communications by law enforcement as part of a strategy to counter violent extremism, and new methods of responding to potential terrorists, as well as probationary and corrections programs. In addition, ICITAP presented a toolkit based on community-oriented policing and standardized incident management systems and provided multiple examples of how law enforcement can engage the community to create resilience and prevent terrorism, respond to incidents effectively through pre-planning and communications, and dedicate resources to the community and police recovery after a traumatic incident, in addition to justice solutions for offenders. International participants hailed from Nigeria, Jordan, Tunisia, Kosovo, and the Philippines. ICITAP’s field missions from Central America, Albania, the Philippines, and Ukraine as well as headquarters were also represented. U.S. officials from the Department of State, the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Justice actively participated in this event, which was attended by approximately 75 people. This event was conducted in partnership with the State Department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism. DOJ Website: www.justice.gov/opa/pr/international-counterterrorism-officials-share-good-practices-community-oriented-policing DOJ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheJusticeDept/status/1201943158453686273