OSCE offers online training course in computer programming for Georgian police investigators

The OSCE launched the first fully online version of its training course, ‘Python Programming for Investigators’, on 30 November 2020 in collaboration with the European Cybercrime Training and Education Group (ECTEG) for cybercrime investigators in the Georgian Criminal Police Department and trainers of the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia.

Originally a 5-day in-person programme, the training course has been re-developed into a 12-week e-learning curriculum that is being administered in four phases through ECTEG’s Learning Management System. It combines self-paced modules, live webinars, tests and coding assignments to teach investigators how to use and apply Python, a computer programming language, to their investigative work. The course will end with an official examination.

The development of this e-learning course is part of the response by the OSCE Transnational Threats Department’s Strategic Police Matters Unit to the increased demand from OSCE participating States, especially during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, for e-learning versions of cybercrime and digital forensics-related training material.

“Such efforts of the OSCE, as a long-time ECTEG member, will undoubtedly pay off in the years to come by helping to train more police officers not only in the areas where the OSCE is traditionally active, but also within the European Union and beyond its borders through the assistance programmes of other ECTEG international members and partners, such as the Council of Europe, the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Training, INTERPOL and United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime,” said Alexander Malyshau, Technical Focal Point for Cybercrime Issues in the OSCE’s Transnational Threats Department.