Conference organized by:

Center for Biosecurity of UPMC

World Health Organization Communicable Disease Surveillance and Response Office

Conference sponsored by:

The Nuclear Threat Initiative

Interpol and Bio-criminalization
Presenter: Ronald K. Noble, J.D.

Biological agents, including bacteria, viruses, protozoa, and biological toxins are the weapons of the new millennium. Incidents of bioterrorism have been documented, and many attempts have been thwarted. Recipes for making biological weapons can be found on the internet, equipment for making and dispersing biological weapons can be purchased on eBay, and the number of people seeking training in microbiology and biochemistry for purposes of ill-intent increases daily.

Law enforcement agencies face many challenges:

• Personnel lack training in biology
• Awareness of the potential for bioterrorism acts is "spotty"
• A traditional law enforcement paradigm makes a visible response at a crime scene to gather evidence, but this approach may not be appropriate, especially if there is no "scene"
• Questions driving police investigations currently focus on "what happened?" However, in bioterrorism acts, the antecedent question must be addressed: "How do we know if/when something has happened?"
• The crime scene presents a risk for first responders.

Superimposed on the challenge is the differentiation between naturally occurring and deliberate outbreaks. Although the public health response is common to both, if a crime has been committed, law enforcement has a critical role to play in apprehending the perpetrator, thereby preventing additional attacks, i.e., the re-load phenomenon.

In this time of transition, law enforcement agencies have numerous unmet needs:

• Regulatory systems must be developed to enable law enforcement agencies to intervene and prevent such crimes
• Police officers must be trained in bioterrorism countermeasures
• Channels for law enforcement to access information must be created
• A cadre of experts to act as confidential informants will be necessary
• Methods for establishing functional relationships between law enforcement and public health personnel must be developed.

Noble's discussion raised several key issues, including the need for accurate and timely disclosure to the public; the need to establish, integrate, and exercise law enforcement and public health command and control protocols; and the tension between and need to address the privacy of medical records versus the use of those records as "evidence sources." Mr. Noble acknowledged that all three areas will require considerable effort in order to optimize law enforcement's effectiveness in the age of bioterrorism.

- Summary by Penny Hitchcock, D.V.M., M.S.

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