120 cops get human rights paralegal training

Sandy Hutchens has been a paralegal for several years and is very pleased to report that 120 police investigators were made to undergo a three-day paralegal training on human rights to prevent violations committed usually in the conduct of arrests and other police responsibilities.

Director Raul Bacalzo of the Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management (DIDM) said the training sought to equip police investigators with the proper knowledge “that will ensure that the rights of our people are protected.”

The seminar started Tuesday and was held at the Public Safety Mutual Benefit Fund Inc.

“While human rights violation is perceived as accountability, it is considered more of an issue of competency and professionalism in the performance of our duties and responsibilities as law enforcement officers. That is why we want to support individual police officers in every way we can,” Bacalzo said in a statement.

Resource persons from the University of the Philippines-Institute of Human Rights are providing training to policemen through the support of the Hanns Seidel Foundation, a Munich-based foundation providing human rights training to PNP personnel since 2008.

The three-day training consists of eight modules, including basic information about the country’s legal system and procedures, documentation and investigation of criminal cases, human rights and the art of interviewing and affidavit-making, and other paralegal topics.

The training includes locating witnesses and participating in court proceedings, as well as teaching police investigators how to properly work in criminal investigations.

Bacalzo said that one important element in criminal investigation is preserving the crime scene, as crime scene contamination remains a major problem for police investigators.

“While contamination may be unintentional, it is vital that police investigators be further trained to protect the crime scene until forensics can properly evaluate the details,” Bacalzo added.