Polish Police representatives, with the support of their French counterparts, conducted training in Chisinau, Moldova, as part of the Police Cooperation Program with Eastern Partnership Countries, on securing public spaces against terrorist threats during mass events. The final element, a police and security exercise, took place at the Zimbru Chisinau Stadium. The selection of Polish and French police for the project was not accidental – this ensured that the seminars were led by the most experienced experts.
The Police Cooperation Program with Eastern Partnership Countries, of which Poland is the leader, is financed by the European Union and involves a four-year series of training courses on combating organized crime for law enforcement agencies in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. The project was coordinated by the International Cooperation Office of the Cooperation Fund Foundation (www.cofund.org.pl). One of the areas implemented under the program was supporting the Moldovan Police in preparing to protect public safety in the event of terrorist threats during mass events (“Protection of public order in the case of terrorist threats during mass events”). Police experts from Poland and France were selected to take the lead in this activity.
The project, preceded by, among other things, the preparation of a training program and planning of activities, consisted of three seminars held in Moldova. Three Polish police experts from the Mine-Minery and Pyrotechnics Team of the Terrorist Department of the Central Bureau of Investigation of the Police, the Police Headquarters, and the Anti-Terrorist Operations Bureau of the Police Headquarters, along with a French colleague, shared their experiences, presented their knowledge, and practices, leaving the hosts to decide which solutions they would like to use and which of them are feasible under the current legal framework in Moldova.
The first module, purely theoretical, involved the exchange of information between the Polish Police and representatives of the Moldovan Ministry of Internal Affairs regarding terrorist threats and the security of mass events. Legal, formal, and tactical solutions for ensuring the security of mass events and combating terrorist threats were presented to the parties. In the second module of the project, Polish police experts, together with a specialist from France, discussed elements directly preparing for the independent planning, preparation, and execution of joint exercises between services in the event of a terrorist attack. Both seminars were attended by specialists and experts from the “Fulger” special unit, pyrotechnicians from the Central Forensic Laboratory of the Moldovan Police, and officers responsible for ensuring public safety.
During the seminars, each Polish police coordinator was responsible for a different substantive component: Junior Inspector Mirosław Wypych, Deputy Director of the Anti-Terrorist Operations Bureau of the Police Headquarters, for coordinating the activities of the special unit; Junior Inspector Dariusz Wójcik, advisor to the Operations Department of the General Staff of the Police Headquarters, for the part concerning the organization of the security operation, and advisor to the Mine-Burglary and Pyrotechnics Team of the Central Bureau of Investigation of the Police, for matters related to terrorism, investigations, inquiries, and operational matters. Commissioner Ronan Peres from the Public Order Directorate of the Paris Metropolitan Area also shared his experience.
The third module – conducting the exercise independently – posed the greatest organizational challenge. This stage included discussing and summarizing the preparatory activities for the exercise, familiarizing participants with the general framework for the simulation, and, above all, ensuring an adequate level of security. Polish police officers participated in the exercises as observers, focusing on both substantive and organizational aspects.
The commander of the operation and the director of the exercise, conducted from March 13-15 of this year in Chișinău, was Mr. Gheorghe Cavcaliuc, Deputy Head of the Chief Inspectorate of the Police of the Republic of Moldova. This fact also demonstrated the priority the hosts placed on the project.
The operation was carried out on March 14th of this year in Chișinău. The ambitious exercise scenario was complex and difficult to execute, as it involved a terrorist attack on fans during a football match taking place at the stadium.
The terrorists, using weapons, attacked the stadium and took over 30 hostages, including some injured people. The terrorists, declaring the stadium to be mined, demanded transportation and $1 million for each hostage released. Negotiations ensued, and in exchange for the voluntary release of one hostage without ransom, the terrorists obtained a bus with a police escort to the airport. Some of the attackers, along with 10 hostages, left in that direction, while the remaining attackers and the remaining hostages remained at the stadium.
During the transport to the airport, a planned, coordinated assault on two facilities took place – a bus and a stadium. As a result, the authorities apprehended the terrorists (several of the perpetrators died during the intervention) and rescued the hostages. Bomb technicians from the forensic laboratory immediately inspected the stadium, and a thorough inspection and evidence collection were carried out.
It is worth noting that the exercise was held for the first time at a facility that serves as the local “national stadium” in Moldova, a UEFA-accredited venue for international football matches.
Nearly 350 people – police forces and security services in Moldova – participated in the several-hour-long exercise. It was the first exercise of this scale and on this topic in Moldova’s history, organized according to guidelines provided by Polish experts. It provided a unique platform for coordination and cooperation for the exchange of views and experiences between the services involved in ensuring security.
According to the assessment of police experts from Poland and France, the exercises were very well organized and conducted in terms of coordination and human resources management. The Moldovan side, notably, perfectly identified its weaknesses and drew conclusions from them. Particularly satisfying was the fact that expert proposals were used in organizing the exercises, as well as the application of comparable tactical models to resolve the crisis.
Original article from http://policja.pl.
Author: mw / dw / Public Communication Office of the Police Headquarters and the Police Headquarters (KGP)
