OSCE Mission to Skopje supports community policing by helping to organize regional conference

SKOPJE, 21 October 2008 -Advancing community policing through encouraging the establishment of local councils that will promote co-operation between police and the population in seven municipalities is the aim of an OSCE-supported regional conference taking place in Delcevo today.

Mayors of the eastern municipalities of Delcevo, Pechevo, Berovo, Vinica, Kochani, Cheshinovo-Obleshevo and Makedonska Kamenica, along with public prosecutors, representatives of the Interior Ministry, the local police and Citizens Advisory Groups, will discuss creating such councils in their municipalities and identify public safety concerns as well as ways to address them. The overall goal is to ensure that community policing practices are promoted in the region.

The regional workshop is organized by Delcevo Municipality with the help of the OSCE Spillover Monitor Mission to Skopje.

"This conference will help establish a network among the seven local councils that will allow citizens and institutions to improve their partnerships in addressing communal public safety concerns at the local and regional levels," said Raymond Hirons, Acting Head of the OSCE Mission's Police Development Department.

Delcevo Mayor Mirko Ivanov added: "These councils form a tool to improve local and regional security and promote the community policing concept because they further a partnership between police and the local population and joint problem-solving."