The U.S. government, through its Embassy in Peru, renovated 20 classrooms for the first Peruvian National Police’s (PNP) Criminal Investigation Postgraduate School in the Puente Piedra district, in the department of Lima.
The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs invested $400,000 in the project, to provide security to citizens and support the development and welfare of the country, the Embassy said in mid-March.
The school will enable students of the Puente Piedra Police Academy to be highly specialized in the fight against crime, the Peruvian Ministry of the Interior said.
The classrooms are equipped with modern educational material. One of the classrooms will be dedicated exclusively to cybercrime investigations, a growing threat not only in Peru but worldwide, the Embassy said.
Three classrooms will be dedicated to crime scene management to train in evidence gathering and processing. The main area of the school consists of 16 identical and equipped classrooms, the Ministry of the Interior said.
Another classroom will be a courtroom, for police training when called to trial to present a case in accordance with Peru’s criminal procedure code, it added.
“This would not have been possible without the invaluable support of the U.S. Embassy in Peru. This demonstrates the commitment it has with our Police,” said Peruvian Interior Minister Alfonso Chávarry Estrada during the inauguration. “We are certain that this academic unit and the other improvements will have a positive impact on the future performance of [Police] functions.”
The Interior Ministry said it was certain that “the strategic alliance between Peru and the United States will continue to yield positive results in the fight against crime.”
The projects implemented with the U.S. are part of the Police educational reforms that aim to strengthen the capabilities of future police officers in the fight against narcotrafficking, cybercrime, violence against women, human rights, and human trafficking, among other crimes, Chávarry said.
“For that reason, we see with great satisfaction the renovation of 20 classrooms for the criminal investigation specialty in this school in Puente Piedra, and the construction of two virtual firearm ranges, one here and the other in the San Bartolo Police Academy,” the Interior Ministry said via Twitter on March 11.