Contaminated crime scene investigation ©ISEMI
By Dr. Marian Kolecnik, Founder, ISEMI, Slovakia
While CBRN threats are mostly associated with terrorism, this threat represents only a fraction of all CBRN crimes. CBRN crimes involving the use or threat of use of chemical, biological, radioactive, and nuclear materials in fact can be wide ranging and first, second and third line responders have to be adequately prepared to prevent, detect and intervene when such crimes occur.
Since ancient times, society has dealt with a specific type of CBRN crime involving the use or threat of chemical, biological, radioactive, and nuclear materials (Mayor, 2003). However, until recently, few studies have dealt with them in detail, and not all security forces are making an effort to detect various CBRN crime types. This is because CBRN threats are mostly associated with terrorism where the attention of law enforcement agencies is commonly focused. However, terrorism actually represents only a fraction of all CBRN crimes.
Therefore, there is a need to consider other criminal aspects as well. According to the International Security and Emergency Management Institute’s (ISEMI) study of the legislation of 40 countries around the world, CBRN-E Criminal conduct is divided into four basic categories (Kolencik, June 2021):
- CBRN-E crimes against human life and health, which include, for example, assassination, murder or killing by negligence using CBRN agents.
- CBRN environmental crimes related mainly to the illegal storage of dangerous materials in landfills or in nature.
- CBRN-E crimes against public safety and security, administration of justice, consumer rights and property. They include, for example, acts of sending envelopes with dangerous material to state institutions or procurement, storage, handling, and transportation of CBRN materials without appropriate permits.
- The most serious crimes that relate to terrorism and activities related to participation in terrorist groups, which is a CBRN-E crime against the community, nation, humanity, and state system.
The United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) (Toleubayev et al., 2022) later adapted the above ISEMI proposed categorization into the following five groups of CBRN crimes:
- against human health,
- against the environment and livestock,
- against public security and safety,
- against consumers, businesses, and property, and
- against national security and governments.
According to Dr. Marian Kolencik’s (June 2021) proposed definition, CBRN-E crime may represent “an intentional or unintentional offence that is included in the relevant category of offences directed against public safety and security, health, human and animal life, plants, soil, air, water, forest, environment, property, nation, state, humanity, peace, international regulations and the economy in the criminal or similar law of a given country, and which in any way includes directly or indirectly hazardous CBRN-E materials. CBRN materials can also be dispersed using explosives in certain specific crimes, and therefore (E) like explosives is added to the abbreviation CBRN.”
CBRN criminal activity must also be seen in the context of the ongoing war in Ukraine. Destroyed hospitals, industrial plants, warehouses, and potentially laboratories, as a result of the Russian army bombing may bring CBRN materials into the hands of criminal groups from various countries. Likewise, there are a large number of cases of illegal trade in CBRN materials all over the world (Schmid & Spencer-Smith, 2012 and IAEA, N.D.) and terrorist organizations have tried several times to plan and carry out CBRN attacks (Vasileva, 2019).
The preparedness of security forces for prevention, detection, as well as intervention in case of any crime using CBRN materials is therefore clearly necessary. ISEMI, in close cooperation with other partners, provides a series of trainings in the field of CBRN crime prevention and detection. These are primarily exercises in the field of profiling in preventive security and covert operations. They mostly concern special forces fighting terrorism, border police, intelligence services, special operations teams, intervention teams, bodyguard services and customs offices among others.
This type of training of security forces is generally necessary, as their main goal is to increase skills in the area of detection of risk indicators related to the preparation and execution of a crime using CBRN materials. It must also include the development of observational skills, the ability to correctly interpret people’s perceived phenomena and behavior, to recognize emotions in non-verbal communications and to learn how to correctly conduct interviews with suspicious persons. ISEMI, with the support of several security agencies, such as from France, Germany, Belgium, Great Britain, Portugal, Luxembourg, Estonia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Georgia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, also facilitates the scientific research of Dr. Kolencik focused on the critical analysis of existing scientific studies and past criminal cases with regards to the detection of risk indicators in which CBRN and explosive materials were involved. Its results can be beneficial for practical use in operational activities as well as in training, as confirmed by individual security forces in supporting letters.
Training in the field of intervention against an already committed CBRN crime is equally important. Whether it is a first, second or third response to a CBRN incident, practical skills must be constantly refined through repeated exercises and drills. In its trainings, ISEMI distinguishes between the education of first responders and the second and third lines of response. While first responders need just a basic training in securing the place of incident, rescuing people, and preventing the spread of contamination, second and third lines require deep knowledge and capacity building. The explanation of terms such as the first, second and third line is crucial in order to understand the concept of the training. These have been developed in the past years within the project Bullseye (2023) and agreed upon by various security forces and civil protection authorities.
First responders, according to the Bullseye project (2023) are defined as the intervening elements that must save human lives and minimize the impact on the local community, economy, and environment in the first twenty minutes after the occurrence of a CBRN incident. First responders, i.e., firefighters, medical services, patrol police, and private security agencies without deep knowledge of the field of CBRN and without appropriate technical and protective equipment, must carry out tactical activities at the scene of the incident and obtain as much information as possible necessary for an intervention by second line responders.
Training for the second and third lines of the response mostly includes the development of crucial skills, such as risk assessment, donning and doffing, search and rescue, detection and identification of the threat, sampling and crime scene investigation, decontamination of the victims, perpetrators, personnel, and the incident area, first aid, as well as command post responsibilities.
Second responders can be specialized rescue and firefighter services, CBRN police, SWAT and EOD teams, civil security agencies, CBRN military teams and specialized ambulances. Their objective is also to save lives and minimize the impact on people and the environment using an effective and coordinated strategy. Second responders should be well experienced, equipped and trained to be able to respond to any CBRN incident. They have to coordinate their response with first and third line responders. Sometimes, if they are present at the incident scene immediately, they may also be considered first and second responders as well (Bullseye, 2023).
One of the important second responder ISEMI training includes the SWAT team. The main goal is to develop skills in the neutralization of criminals in conditions of CBRN contamination or ionizing radiation, the use of detection devices within the framework of close threat detection, the filtering of apprehended persons at the scene of the crime and their subsequent decontamination, as well as the marking of dangerous zones for the purposes of other intervention teams and video-recording the whole intervention that can be used by crime scene investigators in a later phase.
The third line responders, such as as crime scene investigators (CSI), disaster victim investigators (DVI) and forensic experts can arrive at the incident scene together with the second responders or in the late stage, depending on various factors. According to the Bullseye project (2023), their aim is to secure and collect all relevant physical evidence, including samples from used CBRN agents, needed for the prosecution and the identification of victims.
Repeated training and education have their purpose. Acquired skills are thus constantly maintained, improved, or updated with new elements. ISEMI implements a wide range of courses for the aforementioned security forces at an international level. The methods used by ISEMI primarily include learning-by-doing, practical exercises with simulants and live agents, but also new technologies including drones, robots, and virtual and augmented reality in cooperation with the University of Žilina in Slovakia. Innovative training is the only way to ensure the effective prevention and detection of CBRN crime, as well as an efficient response to a CBRN incident.
About the Authors:
Dr. Marian Kolencik, PhD. works as CBRN-E Security Analyst and Profiler specialized in CBRN-E crime and terrorism. His academic background is in the field of Education and Social Science (Slovakia), CBRN Security Management (Poland), Criminal Profiling and Crime Scene Analysis (USA). He was also trained in countering CBRN terrorist threats by the French police. Since 1995, he has been providing advisory services, training and various crime scene and security analysis for many security forces around the world, and European and international institutions. He is the founder of the International Security and Emergency Management Institute (ISEMI) in Žilina, Slovakia.
References
Bullseye project (2023) Bullseye Trainers Guide – https://www.bullseyeproject.eu/
IAEA (N.D.) Incident and Trafficking Database. Available at: https://www.iaea.org/resources/databases/itdb
Kolencik, M., (June 2021) CBRN-E crime and offenders´ motives, ISEM Institute. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/352860728_CBRN-E_crime_and_offenders’_motives_What_is_it_Why_people_do_it
Mayor A (2003) Greek Fire, Poison Arrows & Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World. Woodstock, N.Y.: Overlook Duckworth. ISBN 978-1-58567-348-3.
Schmid, A. P. & Spencer-Smith, C. (2012) Illicit Radiological and Nuclear Trafficking, Smuggling and Security Incidents in the Black Sea Region since the Fall of the Iron Curtain – an Open Source Inventory, Perspectives on Terrorism: Available at: http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/schmid-illicit-radiological/html
Toleubayev, T., Hoile, R., Austin, P., Collyer, G., Wood, R., Minks, S., Kolencik, M. (2022) A Prosecutor’s Guide to Chemical and Biological Crimes. UNITED NATIONS INTERREGIONAL CRIME AND JUSTICE RESEARCH INSTITUTE. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/360803303_A_Prosecutor’s_Guide_to_Chemical_and_Biological_Crimes
Vasileva, P. (2019) Terrorist chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) threat to Europe. International scientific journal “security & future”. Issn 2535-082x; print issn 2535-0668. Available at: https://stumejournals.com/journals/confsec/2019/3/93.full.pdf
