OSCE continues to support Kazakhstan’s Border Service in risk profiling

The first in a series of OSCE-supported five-day training courses on profiling at the border checkpoints to assist in countering transnational threats concluded in Almaty, Kazakhstan on 3 March 2017.

Twenty four officers of the Border Service of Kazakhstan’s National Security Committee took part in the second stage of a larger project co-organized by the OSCE Programme Office in Astana with the United States Embassy in Kazakhstan and the Central Asian Regional Information Co-ordination Centre for Combating the Illicit Trafficking in Narcotic Drugs, Psychotropic Substances and their Precursors (CARICC).

Experts from the Association of Psychologists of Kazakhstan and CARICC as well as officers from the Main Division for Border Control of the Border Service provided border guards with the skills to develop the system of risk profiling, statistical instruments to analyse information on criminal incidents and ways to develop an actionable in-depth risk profile. 

Training included techniques for in-depth psychological analysis of a suspect’s verbal and non-verbal behaviour as well as ways to identify specific risk indicators. The manual “On Organization of Profiling at Border Crossing Points” developed by the experts from CARICC and the Association of Psychologists with the support from the Office and the US Embassy was presented at the opening.

The series is a continuation of last year’s training events on profiling for border guards organized in six different locations around Kazakhstan for more than 80 border service officers.

The event is part of the Office’s activities aimed at enhancing the host country’s border security and promoting integrated border security management while countering transnational threats. Follow-up events are scheduled to take place in Almaty, Aktobe, Astana and Kostanai.