Message from the RTC Director

Published January 21, 2020

Dear alumni and partners of the RTC,

Happy New Year to you all! Now that we are a few days into the New Year, it’s good to look ahead and think about what this year may bring us. But first, let’s take a quick look at our accomplishments last year. 2019 was a great year for all of us at the RTC.

In the course of the 2019 training year we made great progress in developing strong partnerships with our alumni network. In March 2019, we hosted our first ever regional alumni event at the U.S. Embassy, in Abuja, Nigeria, and had over 60 Nigerian alumni attending. We followed this up with a Ghana-specific alumni event, under our INL Bilateral program. Both events gave alumni the opportunity to interact and share best practices. Feedback received from both events demonstrates that our alumni community is thriving.

The RTC continues to receive support from our U.S. government interagency partners. We are grateful for the support we received from the various embassies in our partner nations across the ECOWAS region. We are especially thankful to our numerous partner law enforcement agencies who support us in the advancement of our mission to create sustainable partnerships in combatting transnational organized crime. At the end of 2019 our alumni database increased to an astounding 5,344 with over 161 courses taught since the inception of the RTC. 

There’s still a lot of work to be done in 2020. We started off the year by giving a facelift to our facility to create a more conducive environment for our participants for the training year. We are also constantly developing new strategies to make the alumni community more relevant to you. This will include alumni events in at least one partner nation and a possible regional video project to highlight the benefits of the program. We are also working closely with our Program Office to make the IGN better for our alumni. Ahead of the new year, I met with various agency heads to discuss courses that will be beneficial to their officers.  My staff and I are approaching 2020 with renewed commitment to serving our participants, alumni, and numerous stakeholders.

While the RTC works to provide the best law enforcement training in the region, I’d like to remind our alumni that we can only be successful if we know the impact of our training through your success stories. I encourage every alumnus of the RTC to share their success stories with us via our various platforms. These stories further validate the relevance of our program to keep it sustainable.

It’s important that in 2020 we take determined action in keeping our people safe. This will only be possible with continued dedication in the work we do as law enforcement professionals. This year will bring us its own challenges as some of us prepare for elections and others work to tighten security against terrorist attacks and other criminal activities. But I’m sure as we continue our capacity building efforts and solidify our partnerships, we will be more impactful.

I wish you every success in 2020! Long live the RTC!