Director Smakiqi has been on an official visit to the US

Vushtrri, 13 June 2016 - The Director General of the Kosovo Academy for Public Safety (KAPS), Ismail Smakiqi, accompanied by Drita Perezic, senior adviser of ICITAP at the executive management of MIA participated in the annual conference of International Association of Directors of Standards and Law Enforcement Training (IADLEST) in United States. Kosovo Academy for Public Safety, respectively Director Smakiqi is a member of the Association. The conference, which lasted from date 05 up to 08 this month, was held in the city Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA.

IADLEST Association is reputable organization that serves as a catalyst for improving law enforcement in the United States of America. Directors of the academies, the trainings and the standards exchange experiences, consult, ask and seek answers to their organizations of law enforcement throughout the year. At the conference theme was training of the most pressing issues for managers and training supervisors.

Association Conference is organized in plenary session (first day) with the main topics of the conference and roundtables (second and third day) with different themes. This year the main topic was "Community Policing". In one of roundtables regarding international trainings Drita Perezic from ICITAP in Kosovo made a presentation on "Action Teams to Community Safety", which has remarkable interest to the participating countries and is looking like model in community safety.

Besides the IADLEST members from US, the conference was also attended from IADLEST members of different countries from all continents. From the Balkan region, except Kosovo had participates also Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Director Smakiqi held meetings with conference participants; with special emphasis ask from officials of Pakistan, South Africa, Colombia, the Philippines, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Algeria support for Kosovo's membership in INTERPOL

During this visit to the US, Director Smakiqi and Perezic visited the Academy of Criminal Justice - Schoolcraft College and Westland Police Department where they were hosted by the mayor of   Westland city, William Wilde. Visits are enabled and supported by John Goci, Albanian-American, who in previous legislation has been a member of the city assembly of Westland.
During this visit, Director Smakiqi was awarded Special appreciation by the state of Michigan, for participation in the conference of IADLEST, that has effectively supported the aims of education and has implemented properly the functions entrusted to the Kosovo Academy for Public Safety and that has made Kosovo police forces a professional and transparent law enforcement.

US visit was enabled by the ICITAP program in Kosovo, who throughout the years after the war is a permanent supporter and partner of the Academy.

After returning from the visit, the director Smakiqi thanked IADLEST Association for the invitation to the Conference, for exceptional experiences and mutual exchanges with members of IADLEST and ICITAP in support for participation in the mentioned conference.

The Director Smakiqi thanked the two Albanian- Americans Goci and brothers Dervishaj for organization of visit to the Public Safety Institutions and the Mayor, Mr. Wilde.