The 56th COLPOFER* Conference was held in Riga on 2 and 3 May 2012 at the invitation of Latvian Railways (LDZ).
The conference saw the election of Didier Schwartz, also Director of Security at SNCF, to chairman of the COLPOFER group for a four-year term.
Didier Schwartz and Jacques Colliard, Head of the UIC Security Division, confirmed their desire to boost coordination links between the special COLPOFER group (comprising security representatives from railway companies and representatives from competent polices forces) and the UIC security platform, to develop the actions and projects required to help serve member railway companies.
The details of how the shared work will be organised as well as any necessary structural adjustments should be established by the time the Security Congress takes place in Bratislava (24 – 26 October 2012), so as to be ready for discussion at the UIC General Assembly in December 2012.
*COLPOFER: in 1981, a number of western European railway companies and law enforcement authorities founded a collaborative body named COLPOFER (French: Collaboration des services de police ferroviaire et de sécurité), constituting an independent special group of UIC in order to boost their cooperation on security issues.
Thanks to European integration, COLPOFER developed over time and now has 38 members.
Under COLPOFER, the increased cooperation between law enforcement authorities and the security services of railway operators includes:
- Exchanging experience and information between members with regard to crime issues in the railways
- Defining a common strategy for railway security
- Drafting recommendations aiming to improve security levels in the railway environment and addressing feelings of insecurity felt by individuals (customers as well as railway staff)
