OSCE Skopje Mission helps improve community based policing

SKOPJE, 27 April 2005 - Fifty officers, who underwent a special OSCE-supported course to become trainers in community policing, will receive awards at a graduating ceremony in Bitola on April 29.

The event will mark the completion of the first phase of the project "Expanded Community Based Policing Training".

The training of trainers initiative, organized under the request of the Interior Ministry, is supported by the OSCE Spillover Monitor Mission to Skopje and funded by the Netherlands Embassy.

"The officers improved their management, communication and mediation skills and studied the principles of community policing and partnership building," said David Tingle, Head of the Mission's Police Development Unit.

Goran Pavlovski of the Interior Ministry said: "During the second phase of the project, these trainers will work in the regions to help improve the community based policing skills of some 7,000 officers all over the country. The Ministry appreciates the support and monitoring role of the OSCE Mission."

The training curriculum was based on findings of a specially conducted public opinion survey, funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation.