OSCE-supported Kyrgyz police reform brings results

The Prime Minister of the Kyrgyzstan, Joomart Otorbaev, approved on 24 February 2015 a set of regulations on the comprehensive evaluation of police performance, a proposal submitted for approval by the Interior Ministry’s working group and the OSCE Centre in Bishkek.

The new approach is part of the Police Reform Measures approved by the government in April 2013. It aims at establishing an effective system of law enforcement and public safety. It refocuses the police on improving the efficiency and quality of work, increasing personal responsibility and the professionalism of each employee, enhancing the quality of management and increasing public trust of the police.

“The old system encouraged crime concealment, illegal denial or initiation of criminal cases, fraud and in no way encouraged the police to increase public trust. The population as the main benefactor of law enforcement services were completely excluded from the process of evaluating police performance,” said Otorbaev.

The Head of the Police Affairs of the OSCE Centre in Bishkek Victor Sotchi said: “The new evaluation framework, supporting the participatory role of people both in the assessment of police performance and in the promotion of the police reform, is envisaged to make the police more accountable and transparent, and to create a safe and secure place for citizens to live in.”  

For the past 20 years, the main criteria of the Kyrgyz police appraisal was based on the simple calculation of the rate of registered and solved crimes in a given year compared with the same period of the previous years. It consisted of no criteria to evaluate the work of a police officer individually, nor was there any effort to gauge the public perception of police work in the country.