The Rwanda National Police College (NPC), yesterday, graduated 40 criminal investigation officers in its maiden Basic Criminal Investigation course that was launched in March.

The graduates include army and Police officers.

Speaking at the graduation ceremony at NPC in Musanze District, the college commandant, Felix Namuhoranye, told the graduates to uphold professionalism in their criminal investigation activities.

"The career you are going to undertake is full of temptations. You must always play by the book. The only way to overcome such temptations is to abide by the laws and values of your respective institutions,” said Namuhoranye.

He outlined integrity, honesty, and incorruptibility as some of the values that should guide them in their duties.

The acquired knowledge, he said, is only the foundation and encouraged them to continue learning from colleagues and do more research on their own as they go about their duties.   

During the course, students covered a range of topics including criminal law and procedure, crime scene investigations, evidence collection, management and administration, human rights in criminal investigations, interviews and interrogations, and professional ethics of criminal investigators, among others.

The school also organised an internship for the trainees to link the theory learnt to the practice.

Namuhoranye said the officers will add value in terms of improving quality of case files and fair justice, and will contribute to the implementation of Rwanda National Police policy to decentralise its services up to the sector level.

The Basic Criminal Investigation course is intended to acquaint Judicial Police officers with skills to be able to deal with contemporary challenges of policing and thereby contribute to the rule of law in the country toward creating a crime free environment where every inhabitant would go about their activities without fear of crime.

NPC runs Basic Criminal Investigation and Professional Investigation courses concurrently.

The professional investigation course seeks to equip officers with competencies in criminal investigations transforming them into career criminal investigators.