OSCE-supported community policing helps solve local problems in Kosovo
Garbage bins and paved streets are things that many of us take for granted. They might not seem like much, but their absence can affect public safety. Such was the case just six months ago in Janjevë/Janjevo, a small multi-ethnic village in central Kosovo.
The garbage dumped in the streets attracted aggressive stray dogs, which created a security risk, especially for children and elderly people," explains Bedri Limani, commander of the local police station in Janjevë/Janjevo.
The dirt path leading up the hill to the local primary school also posed problems. "The path would become slippery with the first rain and almost impassable when it started snowing and everything would freeze. Many people broke legs in such conditions," adds Limani.
People in Janjevë/Janjevo had no other way to raise their concerns with the authorities but to write to the municipal administration in Lipjan/Lipljane - with no result. "We did not have our representative in the administration, and our requests were not answered," says primary school teacher Fehmi Gajtani.
Local safety councils
However, things began to change there this spring, when the OSCE Mission in Kosovo became more involved with the Local Community Safety Committee (LPSC), which it also helped to set up in 2008.
The LPSCs - of which there are 24 across Kosovo - bring together representatives from the local community, the police, municipal administration, and the non-governmental sector. Their main goal is to identify and address key local community problems.
"The LPSCs are a community policing mechanism, so by supporting them, the Mission is in fact supporting the implementation of the community policing concept Kosovo-wide," says Sergey Sirodov, Chief of the OSCE Mission's community policing section.
The Janjevë/Janjevo LPSC has ten active members, including Bedri and Fehmi, who organize village meetings and prioritize issues. "We identified a number of problems including the lack of a safe playground for the children, but the problems of garbage collection and the steps to the school have been voted as the most problematic by the villagers," notes Fehmi, who also heads the LPSC.
The OSCE's support for the local public safety body was just what the village community needed to strengthen its position with the municipal administration and involve it in solving the local problems that had been raised.
Sharing the costs of problem-solving
"We addressed the municipality as a committee with our request to provide ten garbage containers, as well as to build the steps," says Fehmi. However, as Lipjan/Lipljane municipality could not afford to pay the full costs of the stairway or the garbage containers, the OSCE Mission decided to cover the remaining amount.
"Following a partially positive response from the municipality and the request for assistance from the LPSC, we took it upon ourselves to purchase the containers and part-finance the construction of the steps," says Sergey. "The containers and steps have been in place since late June, and the municipality will also install a handrail on the stairway shortly."
The LPSC members also contributed to the overall undertaking by getting more than 100 villagers to join a clean-up action and collect all the garbage in the village, as well as organizing a village meeting promoting a zero-tolerance policy on littering, to be implemented by Bedri and his colleagues on the police patrols.
Other successful projects
And Janjevë/Janjevo is not the only success story. Kosovo's 24 LSPCs have so far implemented dozens of projects addressing local safety concerns.
These include removal of a dangerously unstable rock on a hill above a school in Mushnikovë/Musnikovo village and installation of speed bumps in Vrbovc/Vrbovac, as well as other community policing projects such as a "mini-Olympics" for handicapped children in Vushtrri/Vucitrn, in co-operation with the Kosovo Centre for Public Safety Education and Development.