Community policing in Serbia: Local engagement and partnership for citizens’ security
“The work of the police in a community is, above all, team work. There is no other way to succeed but to act as one,” says Marija Ranđelović, Community Liaison Officer of the Niš Police Department and 2015 winner of the OSCE Mission to Serbia’s Person of the Year Award.
Marija is one of some 80 police officers involved in an OSCE-supported programme on community policing in Serbia. It is assisting Serbia's police in becoming a modern and accountable service that is communicative and responsive to the public.
What is community policing?
Community policing is an approach to police work whereby police officers and citizens work together to solve problems related to crime.
“At the heart of community policing lies community engagement, partnership between the police and local influencers and accountability to the public they serve,” says Denise Mazzolani, Head of the OSCE Mission’s Police Affairs Department.
The Serbian police have been practising community policing since 2002, when with support of the OSCE Mission to Serbia they developed and implemented crime prevention practices in almost all of the cities and municipalites in the country. In 2013, the government adopted a community policing strategy and two years later it approved an action plan for the implementation of community policing activities.
Community engagement takes more than policy decisions, of course. In more than 90 Serbian cities and municipalities, Safety Councils are an important mechanism for bringing the idea of community policing to life. Representatives of local institutions and community groups identify citizens’ safety concerns and develop, implement and raise public awareness of activities to address them.
“Safety Councils embody many of the values for which the OSCE stands as an organization: partnership, local ownership, citizens’ participation and transparency,” Mazzolani says.
Vulnerable groups
The OSCE Mission in Serbia has been supporting Safety Councils and community policing for over a decade. The priority is prevention: protecting those at risk and combating discrimination. The OSCE-supported work of the community policing officers in Niš is a good example.
“In the past few years, we have focused on vulnerable groups, women, minors and minorities,” says Marija. “We raise the community’s awareness of violence against women, domestic violence and peer violence among youth. We have organized sports games for youth as an alternative to drug abuse and violence, educated citizens on how to protect their property from burglars and promoted the safety of Roma children on city streets.”
“Citizens’ safety and security comes first. They must feel safe, feel that they can trust us, our institutions, the state and the system as a whole,” she says.
The OSCE Mission to Serbia together with partners developed a standard Safety Council (SC) model. It published a handbook outlining all aspects of the model including examples of local assembly decisions on forming SCs.
Joint action
As improving the security of vulnerable groups becomes a priority for many police departments, partnership with local civil society organizations (CSOs) possessing expertise on these groups is increasingly indispensable.
In 2016, the Mission to Serbia implemented a project involving joint police-CSO action in the municipalities of Tutin and Novi Pazar. Police worked with the CSO, Impuls, to enhance the cohesiveness of the local communities in protecting women and children from domestic violence.
With the support of the police, Impuls reached out to citizens, especially in rural areas, and organized panel and roundtable discussions for a wide range of stakeholders. More than 200 citizens, predominantly women, attended these events, together with police, local self-government representatives and health and social welfare workers. High-school students and teachers were also involved.
Towards the end of the project, the Tutin police decided to include Impuls in its local team for the prevention and suppression of domestic violence. Twelve cases of domestic violence were reported to the police during the four months of project’s duration, demonstrating how increased co-operation and trust among police, CSOs and the community can lead to a more secure environment.
“For community policing to be successful, police, local authorities, the judiciary, health and social care centres, schools, civil society and media need to come together to make citizens feel safe,” says Edin Kalač, Project Assistant at the OSCE Mission to Serbia.
“The Mission will continue to focus on preventive activities - working with youth and vulnerable groups and promoting gender equality. As long as we are making a difference, we will keep going,” Mazzolani concluded.