On the Range: Training Kosovo’s Law Enforcement Trainers for Safer Policing

Twenty-one law enforcement officers representing different public safety institutions gather at the shooting range in Cernusha/Crnuša, a hill close to Mitrovicë/Mitrovica South, and prepare for another day of practical training on handguns and long rifles. 

Under the expertise of Paul Van Hoek, a qualified international firearms expert hired by the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, and Sergeant Kadrush Koliqi, firearms instructor at Kosovo Police, they’re divided into roles and take respective positions. In this morning’s exercise, it’s Marigona Beadini’s turn, a firearms instructor within Special Operations Unit of the Kosovo Police, to be the Range Master and give instructions to the rest of her fellow trainees on what they are expected to do. A few lineup and take shooting positions, the others play the role of trainers and stand just behind the shooters for additional support and advice. 

Then BAAM, handguns are fired, followed by a transition to long arms and a check if everyone is OK and where the shots have landed. Beadini gathers the officers and evaluates how everything went and if orders were properly followed.

“The focus here is of course on the performance of the shooters, but the main focus is on how the trainers perform and the ability of the main trainer, in this case Marigona, to make the other trainers even better than they already are,” says Van Hoek as Beadini completes her exercise. “She presented as a trainer, and the other trainers behind the shooters should pick up the way she did it, what kind of language and methodology she used,“ he adds.

“With his excellent techniques and experience, instructor Paul Van Hoek helped increase our capacity and professionalism as trainer of trainers. Weapons are part of Kosovo Police officers, and this training has helped us improve professionally so that each police officer and each institution standardizes the handling and the use of weapons that we carry as a preventive measure for the protection of our lives, citizens and property.”

Marigona Beadini, firearms instructor within Special Operations Unit at Kosovo Police

The two-week-long training, supported by the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, is a combination of classroom work and practical exercises on firearms skills and training methodology, and is a response to the needs of Kosovo Academy for Public Safety (KAPS) and the KP. It also supports KAPS in maintaining its international re-accreditation under the US/IADLEST Award of Excellence.  

Tailored to fit the needs of different law enforcement institutions and standardize the training methodology across public safety institutions, its primary focus is on preparing future trainers that will pass on the expertise to their fellow officers in respective institutions. It is part of the continuous capacity building support of the OSCE Mission to KP and public safety institutions.

As the training proceeds, Sergeant Koliqi keeps a close look on everything that goes on, monitoring the training, advising and assessing alongside trainer Van Hoek. He explains that the aim is to train members from all agencies – KP, Police Inspectorate, Correctional Service – to reach a level higher than instructors. “These are all professionals from different regions working on firearms units of their respective institution, but they will now be training police, police inspectorate and correctional services – institutions that carry weapons based on the law - future train of trainers using the same level of expertise, standards and methodology,” he said. 

As the practical training proceeds with other exercises, including simulation of real-life scenarios, Van Hoek says that from his point of view, the exercises today were very well done. “I can see a huge difference between the beginning of the course last week and the level that everybody is able to present today. There are steps made forward to fine-tune everything, because they were already experienced trainers, but now they have additional information, additional skills on making each other better to train another trainer to bring him or her to a higher level,” he adds. 

Speaking about the end result the training and the train-the-trainer chain, Van Hoek points out that for the police officers to execute their jobs on the field, they have to be trained at the highest level possible and they can do that thanks to really good trainers. 

“The trainers can perform better if they are trained by other trainers, so it always gets better and better and the base gets wider and wider so at the end, if there is something on the street, thanks to all this chain, the result should be even better than it already is,” he says. 

“This is the most important thing we all want to achieve – a safe environment with trained police officers who will perform in a very safe, accurate and professional way when they are confronted with life-threatening danger.”

“The training was great. It’s an advancement for me as a firearms instructor. I will be able to train my instructors on something new I learned from a professional trainer from abroad, who showed us something we did not know.”

Maria Milošević, firearm instructor in the Kosovo Police Mitrovica/Mitrovicë region