OSCE Office in Baku

MINGACHEVIR, Azerbaijan, 30 June 2011 - Hundreds of people attended the Police Open Day held in Mingachevir today by the OSCE Office in Baku and the Interior Ministry to raise awareness of police activities and foster a closer relationship between the law enforcement and the public.

The Open Day is part of outreach activities under the OSCE Community Policing Project, which aims to include young people and children as well as their parents in community actions to improve public safety in co-operation with the police.

Held at the Mingachevir City stadium, the programme included competitions and entertainment for children, such as a marathon, a soccer tournament, a handicrafts exhibition and an open-air concert by local musicians and pop singers.

“Today’s event gives citizens the opportunity to understand the work of the police better and to see how it moves towards closer co-operation and partnership with the people they serve,” Marco Kubny, Senior Police Advisor at the OSCE Office in Baku, said in his opening speech. “It is quite symbolic that today’s event is held in Mingachevir, which five years ago was a starting point for our community policing project in Azerbaijan and since then has served as a model for other communities throughout the country.”

In 2006, the OSCE selected Mingachevir as the first pilot location for the community policing project. Following the successful implementation of the project there, the OSCE and Interior Ministry expanded the initiative to twelve other regions.