BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan (April 24, 2015)-- A team of U.S. and Afghan criminal investigation experts, skilled in crime scene forensics and data gathering, are training Afghan law enforcement officials to employ cutting-edge techniques that will assist them during prosecutions.
The National Security Justice Development Directorate's, or NSJDD's, Afghan Training Team, or ATT, Investigations and Forensics Course was developed to provide evidence collection and preservation training for Afghan personnel, who may not have coalition partners mentoring them, said Maj. T. Scott Randall, officer-in-charge of the NSJDD's legal cell.
"Students come to us from the Afghan National Directorate of Security, Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Justice," Randall said. "This four-day course is designed to teach them criminal investigations, forensic science and evidence collection for use in trials and other legal proceedings. What makes this course unique is the focus on having Afghan criminal forensic experts teach and mentor Afghan students during the entire event."
Randall, whose team consists of attorneys, Criminal Investigation Division, or CID, agents, and forensic experts, said although its Train, Advise and Assist, or TAA, mission focuses primarily on personnel from the Justice Center in Parwan, or JCIP, which prosecutes national security crimes in Afghanistan, it also invites other legal professionals from provinces throughout the country to this unique training event.
"The Afghan instructors are from the National Directorate of Security and the Ministry of Interior," Randall said. "These instructors have served with us before, and are able to incorporate many local traditions and procedures into the course."
Sgt. 1st Class Dustin Hinze, ATT CID agent, said the course is broken into three major parts. The Afghans teach fingerprinting, and the importance of DNA and of prosecutor and investigator relationships. U.S. instructors teach evidence collection, latent fingerprint development and collection, police intelligence and analysis, trace evidence collection and identification, proper methods to collect impressions, collection and preservation of DNA, and how not to cross-contaminate evidence.
The third part of the training is a hands-on practical application of techniques learned during classroom instruction.
"Our goal is to ensure they leave with an increased knowledge of current investigative and evidence gathering techniques that'll help them do their jobs," Hinze said. "Some tools we use are completely foreign to them, and we make every effort to ensure that what we're teaching can be applied using the tools they currently have at their disposal."
Invitations are sent monthly to at least three provincial government offices asking that they send people to the course. And although some agencies cannot send students because of local security concerns, government leaders decide who attends the course, Hinze said, who has been a CID agent for four years.
"This class had representatives from Daykundi, Wardak, Ghazni, Kabul and Parwan provinces," he said. "We're hoping that we'll be able to reach out to all the other provinces not represented so we can expand the training across the country."
"During the sensitive site exploitation portion, they're taken to an area resembling a typical Afghan village compound, complete with destroyed vehicles and one and two-story structures," he said. "They practice searching rooms methodically, producing crime scene sketches, and taking crime scene photos."
In addition, Hinze said the practical exercises involve evidence collection, improvised explosive devices, also known as IEDs, and where to find DNA and fingerprints on the devices.
Afghan officials use different equipment than their coalition partners, and to increase their level of proficiency, Hinze said they have to teach them using equipment they have on hand every day.
"They do things totally different than we do, and our job is to try and help them more effectively utilize the equipment they have," he said. "That's especially important in the area of evidence collection, where chain of custody problems could make or break a case."
Although each of the students has some experience in various types of criminal investigations, Randall said they do not have a lot of formal training to effectively do their jobs.
"When they come here, they're able to not only learn from higher-skilled Afghan officials in their fields, but they also get to network with their colleagues from across the country," he said. "Coupled with the new techniques we introduce them to, they return to their jobs much more proficient than they were."
Upon completion of the course, each student receives a completion certificate and an after-action report worksheet that will assist in course improvements in the future. Of the 120-plus students taught so far, the most common feedback is that they would like the practical exercise portion to be longer, Randall said, adding that he wants them to take away why evidence is so important.
"We want them to understand why the proper collection and preservation of evidence is so important to judicial proceedings," he said. "We hope they'll teach their co-workers what they've learned here and hopefully it'll result in an overall improved way that they're able to fight crime and terrorism in Afghanistan."
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