SEESAC Conducts Assessment of Capacities of Moldovan Criminal Police

At the request of the authorities of the Republic of Moldova, on 19-23 September, SEESAC organised a five-day filed visit of its experts to the Moldovan Police to conduct a detailed assessment of their capacities to effectively combat trafficking of firearms and identify concrete recommendations for further capacity building and support. This assessment is following assessment of Criminal Police Services in 6 Western Balkans jurisdictions, and follows the same methodology developed by SEESAC.

The experts assessed the current situation and identified the existing gaps and challenges faced by the police by meeting with various Criminal Police Headquarters’ staff and units as well as paying visits to police academy, training centres, administrative and inspection departments, and police stations.

The assessment is focusing on identification and analysis of the legislative and strategic framework, assessment of the administrative and institutional capacities including criminal analysis, tasking and coordination, investigation and cooperation with different institutions, and stocktaking of the existing technical equipment, including software programs and hardware devices, required for detection of illicit firearms and ammunition, investigations in the field of illicit possession and trafficking of firearms, performing efficient data collection and processing during in the framework of ILP and other criminal police activities.

Based on the needs assessment of the capacities of the Criminal Police services of the Republic of Moldova which will be made after the experts’ visit, SEESAC, together with the Moldovan authorities, will design and implement further activities to support the authorities to scale up their capacities for countering illicit arms possession and trafficking, contributing to a safer region.

These activities are being organised with the funding support of the European Union through its Council Decision 2021/2161, amending Decision 2018/1788, in support of SEESAC for the implementation of the Regional Roadmap on combating illicit arms trafficking in the Western Balkans.