Strengthening investigative and operational capacities in Jordan

Challenge

The presence of violent extremist groups in the region and radicalised individuals returning from regional conflict zones heightened the need for state institutions to work collectively to maintain Jordan’s security and stability. As such, Jordan’s civilian security agencies sought to bolster their operational effectiveness, intelligence and investigative capabilities.

Approach

The project adopted integrated methods to bolstering security agencies’ capabilities to investigate, analyse, and respond to community needs while enhancing community trust. As technical lead in a consortium with Ark Group, between April 2017 to March 2019 Siren designed and delivered activities with the Public Security Directorate (PSD), the General Intelligence Directorate (GID) and the Gendarmerie around three components.

Community policing (CP) The project fully institutionalised CP through training and infrastructure support at the PSD training facilities. This included developing a tailored CP curriculum with the PSD and equipping more than 35 PSD staff to deliver CP courses.

Investigative Counter-Terrorism Policing: The project enhanced the capability of the PSD and Gendarmerie to adopt best practices in intelligence gathering and investigations. This was essential in assisting the PSD to improve CT police operations and address community grievances, notably around over-policing or policing based on assumption not evidence, as well as mitigating the use of intense interrogation during investigations. Capacity building activities included training on intelligence gathering and investigations, and training trainers on crime scene management. The project also installed MAV cameras to expand and upgrade the PSD’s’ Automatic Number-Plate Recognition (ANPR) capacities.

Critical Incident Response: This component included capacity building on crisis management and incident command; incident scene management; first responder first aid; tactical firearms and search training.

Outcomes

• Siren-developed Community Policing (CP) curriculum integrated within the PSD’s basic training syllabus.

• PSD delivered CP training to 657 PSD cadets, and to Criminal Investigations and Special Branch personnel, representing broad recognition of the use of CP for intelligence gathering.

• CP officers implemented community outreach activities around Jordan, including plays on violence, narcotics, environmental protection and gender-based violence, helping create a bridge between communities and the police and lower barriers to reporting.

• Strengthened capabilities in suspect identification through ANPR technologies.

• Strengthened capacities to respond to critical incidents, including terrorist attacks.

  • 72% of critical incident response training participants displayed increased efficiency and enhanced skills on duty, displaying more effectiveness in decision making and greater ability to consider civilian safety when responding to critical incidents.

  • Critical incident response efforts contributed to maintaining community trust in security agencies in the face of high-visibility security incidents that shook the country at the time, including the 2016 Al-Karak attack which exposed important areas of organisational vulnerability at both the tactical and the command levels.