SANTIAGO, Chile – Delegates at the INTERPOL Americas Regional Workshop on Preventing Bioterrorism have endorsed a series of measures aimed at improving law enforcement awareness and training to face the threat of bioterrorism.

Attended by 78 delegates from 26 countries, participants at the three-day meeting included Police Chiefs or their representatives and scientific, legal and academic experts.

Recognising the need to continue developing awareness and expertise in preventing and investigating bioterrorist attacks, Mexico and Argentina have each agreed to host a ‘train the trainer’ programme.

Delegates also welcomed the proposal of a biocriminalisation project, which would include the development of model legislation by the INTERPOL General Secretariat for member countries with no established legal framework in relation to bioterrorism.

Those attending the workshop acknowledged that the work undertaken must continue when they return home, and committed themselves to the following:

• regular threat and risk assessments to be made through the sharing of information between health, medical and law enforcement agencies
• creation or development of appropriate national legislation, inter-agency protocols, joint working procedures, early warning systems, equipment and regular training
• enabling of the implementation of necessary measures to prevent, respond to and investigate bioterrorism.

Each country also agreed to identify an individual responsible for maintaining contact with the INTERPOL General Secretariat on bioterrorism issues.

'Many people still question if the threat of bioterrorism is real, and there can be no doubt that it is. Law enforcement agencies and other affected organizations cannot simply sit back and wait for an attack to take place, as doing nothing is not an option,' said INTERPOL Secretary General Ronald K. Noble.

'This is why I am delighted at the response to this Americas regional workshop, where member countries have not only clearly shown their backing for INTERPOL’s bioterrorism prevention programme, but also gone further, with Mexico and Argentina offering tangible support to ensure the expertise and knowledge gained here can be shared among other police officers.'

Funding from the Sloan Foundation for INTERPOL’s Bioterrorism Prevention Unit has supported police training events in each of the organization’s working regions, with previous workshops held in South Africa and Singapore. Two additional workshops will be held in the next 12 months, in Russia at the end of this year and in Lebanon in 2007.