OSCE brings together local communities in Kyrgyzstan to address security threats
A major OSCE-supported event brought together neighbourhood inspectors, juvenile delinquency inspectors and members of local crime prevention centres from across Kyrgyzstan in Osh, southern Kyrgyzstan on 26 November 2013.
Twenty-three neighbourhood management teams shared experiences in addressing local security threats.
All of those who attended the event participated in a year-long OSCE pilot Neighbourhood Management project aimed at promoting community policing. Under the project, in 2012-2013, all neighbourhood management teams were trained at the Community Policing Training Centre in Osh and successfully completed a course developed by Trevor Service, an international consultant on community-based policing from Northern Ireland. The course participants were trained on developing lasting partnerships between the police and the communities they serve and introduced a ‘Scanning-Analysis-Responding-Assessing’ problem solving model used to identify and address the issues affecting public safety.
Following the training, the teams launched 55 small-scale initiatives to help prevent and address specific community security problems, such as lack of road safety, juvenile crimes and school bullying, interethnic conflicts between young people, and disorderly conduct at night. Twenty-one of these initiatives are currently underway.
The Neighbourhood Management project was carried out under the Police Reform Programme of the OSCE Centre in Bishkek and involved experts from the OSCE Community Security Initiative.