Senior justice, policing officials gather to discuss evolving ISIS threats

Senior justice and law enforcement officials and their diplomatic counterparts from approximately 90 countries and organizations met in Washington, D.C. this week to discuss the evolving threats posed by ISIS.

The U.S. Department of State, the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), and the International Institute for Justice and the Rule of Law organized the meeting, titled the International Conference on Mobilizing Law Enforcement Efforts to Defeat ISIS.

The conference aims to establish a common understanding of the depth and breadth of the threat, which has been evolving since ISIS has lost most of its territory in Iraq and Syria.

Meeting participants discussed proven ‘tripwires’ for identifying terrorists, such as watchlists, biometric data, and finance tracking, as well as the need to share this information as widely as possible.

Participants were briefed on INTERPOL’s Project FIRST (Facial Imaging, Recognition, Searching and Tracking) which supports the sharing of biometric data sharing on terrorist suspects.

“We need to make sure that frontline officers get the information they need to take action,” INTERPOL’s Executive Director of Police Services Tim Morris said. “A country’s decision on sharing information, a name, a DNA profile, or fingerprints, can make the difference in our global efforts to protect citizens from harm.”