OSCE Office and Azerbaijani Interior Ministry expand community policing project

BAKU, 24 February 2009 - Police experts from the OSCE Office in Baku began giving a series of presentations on community policing today as part of a project to support the Azerbaijani Interior Ministry's expansion of such policing in Azerbaijan.

The presentations on community policing - which aims to create close and friendly relationships between police and the communities they serve - will be held in the Narimanov district of Baku, Guba, Khachmaz, Devechi, Terter, Yevlakh, Ganja and Gazakh.

"We fully support the government's efforts to introduce the principles of modern community policing," said Alexis Chahtahtinsky, the Acting Head of the OSCE Office in Baku. "The presentations provide information about international best practices to improve the public services offered by the police."

Over the last two years, OSCE police experts have delivered presentations in Mingechevir in western Azerbaijan and Shirvan in south-central Azerbaijan.

The OSCE Office and Azerbaijani authorities designed the Police Assistance Programme to create a police force that is a modern, community-oriented service provider that works with the population to ensure its safety and to reduce crime.