From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov Transcript for: Central American Police Training Description: How are U.S. federal agencies handling human rights issues as they help train police forces in three Central American countries? Related GAO Work: GAO-18-618: Central American Police Training: State and USAID Should Ensure Human Rights Content is Included as Appropriate, and State Should Improve Data Released: September 2018 [ Background Music ] [ Jenny Grover: ] It's critically important that U.S. funded trading include human rights content as appropriate. [ Matt Oldham: ] Welcome to GAO's Watchdog Report, your source for news and information from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. I'm Matt Oldham. El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras are often known as the "Northern Triangle". And while they have had to contend with corruption and human rights abuses, U.S Federal agencies have been providing training to these Northern Triangle nations to help professionalize their police forces. I'm with Jenny Grover, a director on our International Affairs and Trade team, and she led a GAO report that looked into the role that human rights content plays in this training the United States provides. Thanks for joining me, Jenny. [ Jenny Grover: ] Good morning. [ Matt Oldham: ] So, what sort of training are we talking about? [ Jenny Grover: ] Well, there's a wide variety of classroom training for police in these countries ranging from things like how to do community policing, to use of firearms, combatting drug cartels, how to interact effectively with vulnerable populations. Or, more mundane topics like how to write a police report and how to plan for operations. [ Matt Oldham: ] Why is the U.S. helping to train police in these Northern Triangle nations? [ Jenny Grover: ] Because these countries have a history of poorly trained and corrupt police. The police have committed human rights violations over many years, including mistreating their own citizens and arbitrary killings. So, the U.S. actually has a very strong interest in making sure that we help these countries move towards greater security; towards less violence, because of the potential benefits to them, but also to us. We have the possibility here to move the needle on things like less irregular migration and diminished drug and gang activities if the police are fully professional and really respectful of human rights. [ Matt Oldham: ] So, how much of this training is focused on these human rights issues? [ Jenny Grover: ] We found sometimes the training includes human rights, but not always. So, we looked at the training provided by the Department of Defense, and the USAID-funded training. And in those cases, we found that their training did include content on human rights. But, Department of State, which is by far the largest provider of police training does not consistently include human rights content. In fact, the Department of State officials did not have information about the content of the police training that they're funding. [ Matt Oldham: ] So, what happens if some of this training does not include human rights content? [ Jenny Grover: ] Well, it's not necessarily needed in every police training. So, it's important to remember that if you have really technical classes that are focusing on things like firearms tracing systems or crime scene management; it might not be necessary. But respect for human rights is a long-standing challenge for these police forces, and progress in this area is really critical to developing police forces that can build public trust, address the culture of corruption in these countries, and move towards greater national security. So, in general, yes, it is a critical issue that should be addressed in most police classes. [ Background Music ] [ Matt Oldham: ] It sounds like the government is concerned with including human rights in their training, but it's difficult for them to know how well it's being implemented. So, Jenny, what recommendations did your team have? [ Jenny Grover: ] The Department of State and USAID should both develop policies and management systems to make sure that human rights content is included, or continues to be included, in their police training is appropriate. The second recommendation we made relates to another issue we found, which is that the Department of State data on the number of police trained was incomplete. They just didn't have good records about how many officers they were reaching in these countries. The Department of State should collect complete data on the number of police trained. [ Matt Oldham: ] Final question. What do you believe is the bottom line of your report? [ Jenny Grover: ] So, U.S. agencies are spending millions of dollars each year training police in the Northern Triangle countries. And, to make sure that our taxpayer dollars are being spent effectively and to make sure that the training is as effective as possible in addressing these critical areas related to human rights abuses that have been a long-standing problem, it's critically important that U.S.-funded training include human rights content as appropriate. [ Matt Oldham: ] Jenny Grover is an International Affairs and Trade director, and she was talking about a GAO report looking at how federal agencies include human rights training as they help professionalize police forces in the Northern Triangle. Thank you for your time, Jenny. [ Jenny Grover: ] Thank you. [ Background Music ] [ Matt Oldham: ] And thank you for listening to the Watchdog Report. To hear more podcasts, subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts. [ Background Music ] [ Matt Oldham: ] For more from the congressional watchdog, the U.S. Government Accountability Office, visit us at gao.gov.