OSCE Centre supports crime prevention with focus on elderly citizens
BISHKEK, 22 July 2010 - Ensuring public safety through local crime prevention centers with a special focus on the elderly was a topic of a seminar which ended in Bishkek today.
The two-day event organized by the Bishkek City Police Department and HelpAge International, international non-governmental organization, and funded by the OSCE Centre in Bishkek, gathered around 60 participants from police and civil organizations, who are representatives of Local Crime Prevention Centres (LCPC) in four districts of Bishkek.
The seminars will improve the interaction between the police, civil organizations and the public, increase understanding and raise awareness about the security concerns of the elderly and introduce the concept of "neighborhood watch" and other methods of community policing.
Ambassador Andrew Tesoriere, the Head of OSCE Centre in Bishkek, said: "Providing protection and reassuring residents at a community level lies at the heart of the OSCE Centre's support for public order and safety. The network of Local Crime Prevention Centres proves an increasingly effective way of strengthening mutual contact and understanding between local residents and the police, and of protecting the most vulnerable community members, including the elderly."
"These centres make a significant contribution to public order, especially in resolving domestic conflicts and violence, and facilitate work of the police," said Timur Kaunash, the Chief of Public Safety unit of the Interior Ministry.
"Elderly people are a vulnerable category of the population, as they do not always know how to deal with crime and security issues. This is where prevention centres could provide effective support,"added Gulnara Abdykalykova, Country Program Coordinator in Kyrgyzstan of HelpAge International.
As part of the OSCE Centre's project on improved community policing through working with the elderly, HelpAge International together with local organizations and the police launched an activity aimed at building relationship between older people and neighborhood police inspectors based on trust and mutual understanding.