OSCE Centre in Bishkek hands over Mobile Police Reception vehicle to police in Issyk-Kul to boost public security

CHOLPON-ATA, Kyrgyzstan, 18 June 2016 – The OSCE Centre in Bishkek today handed over a Mobile Police Reception vehicle, the 19th donation of this kind, to the Issyk-Kul Police. This vehicle aims to contribute to efforts to ensure public security in this tourist region and to promote social partnerships between the police and local communities.  

As well as supporting work to prevent crimes, the vehicle is designed to make the police more accessible to citizens so that they can together address security concerns at the local level, and enhance the confidence of the population in the police.

“The Mobile Police Reception vehicles have proved to be a very effective community policing tool in addressing the security concerns of the population,” said Pavel Khalashnyuk, acting Head of Police Affairs at the OSCE Centre in Bishkek. “This is a proactive policing philosophy when police approaches communities to learn about the problems and concerns so that they can address them in partnership with the local authorities and the communities themselves.”

Mobile Police Reception vehicles were introduced in Kyrgyzstan in 2011 and are actively used by police.

According to a survey by the ELPIKIR research company in 2015, the local population considers the vehicles as an effective tool to address community security concerns. Moreover, the survey found that the population’s trust in the police had significantly increased in the country’s 14 territorial districts where these vehicles have been operating in the past five years.

This is the 19th Mobile Police Reception vehicle donated by the OSCE Centre in Bishkek to the Kyrgyz Ministry of Interior since 2011. The other 18 vehicles are currently operating in remote areas of the Osh, Jalal-Abad and Batken provinces, and the Chui and Zhayil districts of Chui province.

The donation of the Mobile Police Reception is an activity under the Community Policing Project of the OSCE Centre’s Police Matters Programme.