Airpol Video Based Table-Top Exercise Severe Incidents at an Airport
Airpol has conducted exercises at 17 different airports in 15 countries based on the video Severe Incidents at an Airport beginning in March 2022 at Stansted airport. The one-day exercise is a table-top inviting all relevant actors at an airport namely, all relevant actors from the airport, Law Enforcement, Airport Manager, Airport Security, ATC, Fire and Rescue, Medics, Airlines and others depending on the airport organization. The video, produced by Airpol, contains a number of incidents where participants discuss what should be done and by which actor. The aim is to enhance co-operation and increase the airport actors’ knowledge of their own task and that of the others. It also gives the participating actors the opportunity to reflect on possible vulnerabilities in their own emergency plans as well as in relation to others. The concept includes the exercise conducted at one airport together with a parallel training for exercise leaders from the host airport as well as from other airports in the country who will then receive the exercise training package and do the exercise later on at their home airport.

Up until May 2024 more than 950 participants have taken part in the exercise in total.

During the Spring 2024 exercises at Helsinki and Tallinn was performed. In May a second exercise was held in Bulgaria, this time in Varna.

Airpol CBRN train the trainer course
Airpol gave the CBRN part B (practical part) in two sessions in October 2023 in Poland. CBRN part A was held in March for 29 officers from 16 countries. Detection equipment for a trial period of two years is planned for the Autumn 2024 with equipment provided by the EU Commission

The Airpol Behaviour detection training concept
The Airpol Behaviour detection Part A and Part B has been amended by a further developed interview part. This development was given as a one-time course part C in October 2024, in Vienna. Later the part C will be implemented in Part A and B of the Airpol Behaviour detection concept.

The Behaviour detection WG is also developing a web-based training to replace the BD Part A Session. The aim is to transform Part A into a web-based session in order to reach out to a larger group of Law Enforcement officers, enabling to do the course more flexible and raise the awareness on how the work with BD is done at European Airports.    

Airpol Insider Threat Awareness exercise
The Exercise is planned to be conducted in the same way as the Exercise Severe Incidents at an Airport by gathering all relevant actors at an airport for a table- top and discuss certain cases imposing an insider threat. The difference is that for this exercise the focus actors are at management level. The exercise will be a half-day session and will include discussions around mental health issues, disgruntled employees as well as addiction as a possible threat from an insider threat perspective. The aim is to raise awareness within the subject and improve collaboration between the different actors in the Airport Community.

AIRPOL WG Unruly Passengers
During Spring 2024 the Unruly passenger WG completed the guideline Airpol Guideline On Dealing With Unruly Passengers. It was issued to the MS in June. The aim with the guideline is to support the communication between the Local Police and an Aircraft Commander in case of unruly/disruptive passenger at an aircraft. The Guideline has been introduced at ACI Security Committee and issued also to the members at EU airports by ACI Europe.

Discussions are held with ICAO, ACI World and some more members to further develop a guideline on Unruly passengers with the AIRPOL document as a base.

AIRPOL Plenary Congress 2024 in Bucharest
On the 9-10 October the Airpol Plenary Congress will be held in Bucharest, Romania. About 100 participants from 28 countries are invited together with all relevant co-operation partners to AIRPOL. The theme for this Congress is Advanced research and development – what’s in it for Law Enforcement?
An important part of the Congress is the work-shops and the panel session with the Industry.

Capacity Building in Moldova
The training on Behaviour detection was conducted by AIRPOL in co-operation with OSCE in February 2024 in Chisinau, Moldova.

The POL- Network meeting
In March Airpol, Aquapol, Railpol and Roadpol met in Stockholm the 19th March. The group meets twice a year to discuss synergies and specific co-operation on certain topics. Next meeting will be held in Paris the 17th December 2024.

Airpol representatives at various Conferences in October and November
Peter Nilsson took part in a panel at the Passenger Terminal Expo Conference in Frankfurt the 16th April 2024.

In Ljubljana, Slovenia the ERAC Conference was held the 11th April. Peter Nilsson, AIRPOL was attending as a speaker. During this event AIRPOL also met with representatives for Slovenian Police and Montenegro officials.

In Istanbul, on the 25th April, at the World Border Security Congress Peter Nilsson gave a presentation on Challenges for small airports and ports. AIRPOL also met with representatives for Police in Kosovo and discussed co-operation.

At the ACI Security Committee in Prague, the 24th May, Peter Nilsson presented the Unruly Passenger document and the idea on prevention work together with other actors at an airport. He also mentioned the ongoing work on Protesters.

UPCOMING ACTIVITIES 2024/2025

AIRPOL VII
We are happy to share the news that AIRPOL will continue as a project. The New Project AIRPOL VII starts the 16th October 2024 and will continue for another three years period of time. 

Team Leader meeting 
A WEB meeting will be held in September 2024. The AIRPOL Team Leader group will meet to follow up the work for 2024 and also coordinate the AIRPOL work for the coming year.

POL meeting in Paris 17 December
AIRPOL, Aquapol, Railpol and Roadpol will meet to discuss co-operation and further develop synergies between the networks.

Management Board meetings - 2024
8 October Bucharest, Romania 

Management Board meetings – 2025
Invitations for the meetings below will be sent out to MS later during 2024/2025.

February/March – Lisbon 

June – TBD 

Plenary Congress 2025 London, UK 
Invitations for this meeting will be sent out to MS during 2025.

Exercise Severe incidents at an Airport
Eight Exercises are planned for 2024-25 but locations yet to be finally confirmed.

Insider Threat Awareness Exercise 
The New Insider Threat Awareness exercise will be launched during autumn 2024. Dates Confirmed for upcoming exercises are: Stockholm, Frankfurt, Munich and Vienna. Several more are planned but not decided.

Intelligence WG
Web-based meetings are being held on a monthly basis.

Upcoming events externally
AIRPOL will together with Policia Seguranca Portugal and the Ministry of Interior in Lisbon arrange a conference gathering all Portuguese speaking countries in Africa. The aim is to discuss possible training activities in the future 

Peter Nilsson will present the Unruly document at the DISPAX conference in Bangkok Thailand the 21st November

Peter Nilsson will represent AIRPOL and present at the Critical Infrastructure Protection and Resilience Conference (CIPRE) in Madrid the 14 November.

Membership at Airpol Connect
More information on the activities of Airpol is found at Airpol Connect. Membership is open only to law enforcement officers. Membership application is found at the bottom of this page.