OSCE Mission to Serbia

The Mission's Law Enforcement Department works closely with the Serbian Ministry of Interior on comprehensive police reform to bring policing in line with European and international good practices. This partnership is described in a memorandum of understanding that outlines priority areas of co-operation.

Priority areas of co-operation and assistance

Priority areas are community policing, police accountability, organized crime, war crimes, border policing, crime scene management/forensics, police education and strategic development. Modernizing the police service is central to building confidence in post-conflict areas such as southern Serbia.

Community policing

Introducing community policing principles and practices is the most important factor in improving community safety and police culture. The Mission's activities in this area include facilitating police-citizen forums to build trust and co-operation between citizens, municipal government, civil society and police.

The Mission has also organized a series of roundtables across Serbia to improve co-operation between the media and the police. Results have already begun to foster a more streamlined and mutually beneficial approach to media-police relations.

In addition, community policing initiatives lead OSCE efforts to support a modern and multi-ethnic police service in the municipalities of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac in southern Serbia.

Police accountability

The Mission assists the Sector of Internal Affairs in building its capacity to investigate allegations of crime, corruption and inappropriate behaviour among police officers. Effective internal oversight is key to improving police culture, improving the public's perception of the police service, and promoting accountability and transparency within the service itself.

Organized crime

The Mission plays a crucial role in assisting the Interior Ministry to develop sustainable strategies and means to fight organized crime. It has assisted the Ministry in creating a national strategy to fight organized crime, and continues to support the Ministry in developing a witness protection unit and a criminal intelligence system.

The Mission promotes a regional approach to combating organized crime and helps to strengthen the capacity of the Serbian police to collect and manage criminal intelligence through surveillance. It also advises on establishing an informants handling unit and enhancing police capacity in dismantling illicit drug production sites.

War crimes investigation

The Mission helps to enhance the effectiveness of the Interior Ministry's War Crimes Investigation Service through workshops, technical equipment and study trips to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). It also works to strengthen police competence in investigating breaches of international humanitarian law.

In addition to supporting closer co-operation on an international level, the Mission created ad hoc joint investigative teams on a national level, comprised of police officers, military analysts, prosecutors and investigative judges.

Border policing

The Mission helps to build police capacity at demilitarized borders in Serbia. In January 2007, the Interior Ministry completed the demilitarization of the country's borders.

The Mission also assists the Ministry in implementing the national Integrated Border Management (IBM) Strategy, and an action plan at both the national and regional level.

Crime scene investigation and forensics

Working to help strengthen the forensic capacity of the police, the Mission will also play a crucial role in co-ordinating a new and comprehensive crime scene investigation (CSI) policy. Its work aims to bolster the effectiveness of CSI, develop a training curriculum for CSI officers and create effective management systems that enable an "unbroken chain of evidence" from the crime scene to the courts.

Police education and development

The Mission assists the Interior Ministry in developing and implementing new education and training methodologies and curricula that are based on modern policing models and in line with international human rights standards for police ethics and the use of force.

In addition to helping the Ministry identify, design, implement and evaluate training projects, the Mission runs training sites in three locations: the Advanced Police Training Centre in Zemun, training centres in Bujanovac, south Serbia, and in Sremska Kamenica, Vojvodina.

It also continues to support the transformation of the Police High School in Sremska Kamenica into an entry-level police training facility - a major turning point in the sustainable reform of police education in Serbia.

Strategic development

The Mission assists the Interior Ministry to establish and conduct effective strategic planning activities for the Ministry and the police service. As part of a long-term approach to police reform, the Mission helps co-ordinate assistance to police reform in Serbia by liaising with the international community and providing updates on police-related assistance activities.