Decoding Behaviour: Border Guards and Customs Officers Trained in Tactical Risk Profiling
December 20, 2024
Can you tell if someone is lying to you just by observing their behaviour? Is it possible to spot a potential offender without the help of a polygraph or advanced technology? These intriguing questions were at the heart of two recent 4-day training sessions on Tactical Risk Profiling and Traveler Targeting, organized by the IBM Team of FO Lviv for 12 border guards and 12 customs officers of the Lviv and Chernivtsi regions. The trainings were conducted by a national expert and experienced practitioner in risk profiling, Ukrainian law enforcement officer Oleksandr Grymak.
Imagine you’re trying to solve a crime with no physical evidence – just conversations and a keen eye for detail. Tactical risk profiling is like being a detective of human behaviour, piecing together clues from subtle cues: a flicker of nervousness, an inconsistent story, or even a seemingly innocent change in body language. Participants dove into the fascinating world of human behaviour, learning how to decode verbal and non-verbal cues, assess emotional states, and identify subtle signs of nervousness or deception. They also had to improve their interviewing skills and learn to craft open, closed, clarifying, and expert questions to extract key information. By analysing the consistency of answers and observing interviewees’ behaviour, they honed their ability to distinguish truth from lies.
“In practical set-up in Estonia we continuously use tactical risk profiling techniques to detect potential offenders”, says Aimar Koss, EUAM Senior Border/IBM Adviser, who shared his country’s experience with the participants during the training. “In my opinion, technology will never be able to outperform the human-to-human interaction when it comes to “reading” behaviours. The most important element in making the borders strong and protected is investing into training and development of the personnel whose skills become the main asset of the institution”.
With a blend of compelling theory and hands-on exercises, this training was designed to transform the way officers approach their critical work with citizens at border crossings. By the end, participants were armed with sharper observational tools and newfound skills to predict and prevent suspicious activities related to smuggling and cross-border crime.
