INTERPOL National iARMS Training Course for Costa Rica
A National iARMS Users Training Course for Costa Rica was organized by INTERPOL from 7 to 8 November 2017 in San José, Costa Rica. The training was attended by 20 participants representing different national law enforcement organizations and police units. The objectives of this training were to train law enforcement officers on the use of the iARMS database and to promote the use and benefits of INTERPOL Firearms Programme Policing Capabilities (iARMS, IFRT and IBIN) in the fight against the proliferation of small arms and light weapons Central America. The specific objectives of this training were to encourage the officers to upload all lost and stolen firearms records into iARMS as well as to trace all recovered firearms.
Funded by the European Union, the INTERPOL Illicit Arms Records and tracing Management System (iARMS) is a platform that facilitates information exchange and investigative cooperation between law enforcement agencies in relation to the international movement of illicit firearms. Countries are encouraged to upload records of lost and stolen firearms in iARMS. Consequently, in the case of a recovered firearm, the database is queried and the country can identify when and where the firearm was diverted into illegal possession. Should the query does not generate a positive result, the user can send a request to the country of manufacture, country of last legal import (if marked on the firearm) and to any country that may be connected to the case.