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NCIS Participates in International Police Chiefs' Conference

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS091106-23
Release Date: 11/6/2009 8:48:00 PM

By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class (SW/AW) Kristen Allen, Naval Criminal Investigative Service Public Affairs

DENVER (NNS) -- The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) sent a delegation of senior special agents and other personnel to the 116th annual International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) conference in Denver Oct. 3-7.

IACP is the world's oldest and largest organization of police executives, with more than 20,000 members in over 89 different countries, and its leadership consists of operating chief executives of foreign, federal, state and local agencies of all sizes.

NCIS Acting Director Greg Scovel said IACP provides NCIS with unique opportunities to engage key counterparts, share information, learn about the latest techniques and technology in law enforcement, and more.

"Many of the investigations and operations we are involved in on behalf of the Department of the Navy require us to operate in the jurisdictions of counterpart agencies. This means that effective engagement with our counterparts - whether foreign, federal, state, or local - is vital for us," said Scovel. "The IACP conference is an ideal place to discuss common challenges and common efforts with senior law enforcement executives from around the world."

NCIS coordinated four events to maximize interaction with the numerous foreign and U.S. law enforcement agencies represented at the conference. The biggest event was the annual NCIS Chiefs' Breakfast, at which NCIS honored senior officials from nine foreign law enforcement and security agencies: Sierra Leone, South Africa, Djibouti, Jordan, Qatar, the Maldives, Japan, Panama, and Canada. Also receiving honors were senior representatives from the FBI and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, as well as the chiefs of six local departments: the Guam Police Department; Norfolk Police Department; Everett Police Department; Middletown, R.I., Police Department; Prince William County, Va., Police Department; and Smithfield, Va., Police Department. In addition, the entire senior leadership of IACP, the president of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE), and the vice president of Women in Federal Law Enforcement (WIFLE) were guests.

Scovel said the breakfast is a great opportunity to recognize other agencies that NCIS partners with on a daily basis around the world.

"Our annual Chiefs' Breakfast is our opportunity to single out some key counterparts for special thanks. The key to our success as a global agency is the ability to work effectively with counterpart law enforcement and security partners around the world," said Scovel. "Forging and perpetuating relationships with partners is vital to our ability to achieve our mission."

In addition to the NCIS Chiefs' Breakfast, NCIS senior leaders hosted three additional engagements with police executives: One with leaders from the police services in Kenya, Senegal, Djibouti, and Uganda; one with the Director General of the French National Police and several of his senior assistants; and one with the Deputy Interior Minister of Afghanistan.

Moreover, Ralph Blincoe, the NCIS Deputy Director for Management and Administration, was the keynote speaker at the IACP International Delegates' Luncheon, where he addressed some 400 participants on what the Navy and NCIS are doing in the area of counterpiracy. Blincoe noted the accomplishments that Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand have achieved in their joint efforts to fight piracy in the Malaccan Straits, and commended the more than 20 countries participating in Combined Task Force 151 off the coast of Somalia. He praised Kenya in particular, which has assumed much of the burden of prosecuting Somalian pirates. NCIS has forged an especially close working relationship with Kenyan prosecutors, supporting piracy prosecutions there with investigative efforts in a number of instances.

"We should embrace the opportunity to work together to advance the techniques of international law enforcement in the maritime environment," Blincoe told the international delegates.

The conference was also an opportunity for NCIS experts to hold a seminar on solving cold case homicides, yielding further interaction with representatives from scores of agencies. NCIS has hosted cold case and forensic seminars in numerous locations around the world, helping counterparts to address unresolved murders and enhancing the agency's network of global relationships.

During the conference, NCIS also received two awards from the IACP's Civilian Law Enforcement-Military Cooperation Committee (CLEMCC). CLEMCC recognized NCIS and the City of Virginia Beach, Va., Police Department for their joint initiative on domestic violence reduction, noting the teamwork displayed between the two agencies is an "outstanding example" of military and civilian public safety collaboration and dedicated service to the community. The joint NCIS-Virginia Beach initiative is said to be responsible for lowering domestic violence among naval personnel in the Virginia Beach area by as much as fifty percent since its inception.

NCIS was also recognized, along with multiple civilian law enforcement agencies throughout the northwestern United States, for its Law Enforcement Information Exchange (LInX) Northwest project. LInX is a law enforcement information-sharing system pioneered by NCIS in the Puget Sound region in 2002. Since then, the effort has grown from roughly a dozen participating departments to some 275 partner agencies in four northwestern states.

NCIS is a federal law enforcement agency that protects and defends the U.S. Department of the Navy against terrorism and foreign intelligence threats, investigates major criminal offenses and provides law enforcement and security services to the Navy and Marine Corps on a worldwide basis. The agency is comprised of approximately 2,500 total employees, including 1,300 civilian special agents, in more than 150 locations around the world.

For more news from Naval Criminal Investigative Service, visit www.navy.mil/local/ncis/.