ICITAP donates state-of-the-art training system to Albanian police

TIRANA, Feb 23 – ICITAP donated a state-of-the-art training system to Albanian police at a ceremony held at the Basic Police School and attended by U.S. Ambassador John L. Withers II, together with the Minister of Interior Bujar Nishani, ICITAP Director Darrel Hart and other State Police dignitaries.
ICITAP (International Criminal Investigative Training and Assistance Program) donated to the Albanian State Police (ASP) a state-of-the-art Fire Arms Training Simulator (FATS), a proprietary shooting and force decision simulator which uses interactive, branching video and laser weapons.
This project provides the ASP with the capability of training officers on the use of firearms, measuring their basic and advanced shooting skills, and the ability to simulate real world conditions and situations where officers must decide when and how much force to use under stressful conditions. Besides training police officers and recruits in marksmanship, the system, thanks to its simulating videos, trains them in decision making skills on when to use, or not use, lethal force. This state-of-the-art system also provides the ASP with the ability to produce its own custom interactive videos to use in the simulator.
ICITAP provided over $111,000 in primary funding for this project, with costs covering the system itself, the installation of the equipment and the training of the firearm instructors/facilitators. The Albanian State Police contributed by funding the renovation of an existing classroom for the exclusive use of this system.
ICITAP has been providing training and reformation assistance programs since 1998 which have aided in the preparation of a new more efficient, professional and modern Albanian police force. ICITAP has helped shape the reorganization of the Police Academy Training Program by combining the former three-year academies and the one-year institute into a new curriculum that includes both substantive classroom learning and field training. ICITAP advisors have also worked on the development of a promotion system, recruitment policy, the formation of a Training Division in the Personnel Directorate of the Albanian Police, and have conducted substantial training in data communications and information management, integrated border management, anti-trafficking, organized crime and corruption efforts, human resources management and police accountability.