Collins-Lowe recently attended the instructor training for refresher Inspection and Interaction Skills Enhancement (IISE) workshop at Headquarters, which emphasizes effective passenger processing techniques. She is one of 100 that will now return to the field and train nearly 9,000 Customs personnel.

Taking AIM
The training was developed at the recommendation of the Assessment, Implementation and Monitoring (AIM) Committee. The AIM Committee is a permanent Customs working group whose purpose is to look at how Customs can improve its policies and procedures for international air passenger processing.

The Committee, chaired by Acting Commissioner Charles W. Winwood, was formed to evaluate the recommendations in the report of the Personal Search Review Commission and Independent Advisor Sanford Cloud.

Members include the assistant commissioners for the offices of Field Operations, Training and Development, Finance, and Public Affairs; the Director of Passenger Programs, Office of Field Operations; Special Assistant for Equal Employment Opportunity; and the Port Director, Chicago.

The Office of Training and Development engaged a contractor, Human Technology Inc., to produce the training program. Passenger Programs, Office of Field Operations, brought in appropriate subject matter experts from around the country to provide data and guidance to the contract training professionals.

Together, they produced a course that covers the passenger process in five subject units: Professionalism, Observing Behavior and Analyzing Documents, Interviewing, Examining Luggage/Personal Belongings, and Conducting a Personal Search.

Richard Barr is the program officer for this project. Says Barr, "From the beginning, we took into account the differences in the enforcement environment between airports/seaports and land border crossings. The idea was to complete the air and sea version first, and then present the same principles with land border points of reference."

Continuous learning: train-the-trainer
The two-day, 16-hour course consolidates several single-focused training sessions into one comprehensive course. The training is designed to reinforce existing passenger inspection and interaction skills, and includes a review of current passenger processing policy related to personal search.

Workshop leaders encourage participants to learn from each other by exchanging techniques and expertise.

"This continuous learning experience for Customs officers ensures that the Customs mission is carried out in the most efficient and professional manner," says Robert Jacksta, Director, Passenger Programs, Office of Field Operations. Adds John Heinrich, Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Office of Field Operations, "Training is fundamental. This is going to keep us number one."

The first class of training began in January. The land border trainers are scheduled to receive their version of the course beginning in June. The goal is to train all inspectional and canine enforcement personnel by December 31, 2001.

Painting Recovered The painting of Christ by Venetian artist Jacopo de'Barbari is one of 13 pieces of art stolen from the Schwartzburg castle in Weimar, Germany, that Customs recovered in an undercover investigation and returned to German officials on December 5, 2000.