News and press releases

The rapid growth of technology and social media has redefined how people communicate. It has also significantly changed the way organized crime groups operate.

Enhancing specialized crime units’ skills in information gathering as a prerequisite to investigating serious and organized crime, was the focus of a workshop the OSCE Mission to Montenegro and the Criminal Intelligence Division within the Montenegrin Police Directorate organized on 8 and 9 November 2021 in Podgorica.

VIENNA, 5 November 2021 – A holistic approach to policing needs to be considered when maintaining public safety in diverse societies, said OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Kairat Abdrakhmanov at a conference marking the 15th anniversary of the Recommendations on Policing in Multi-Ethnic Societies (Policing Recommendations), held today in the Hofburg in Vienna.

In several European countries, dialogue policing, with its emphasis on the importance of oral and informal communication between the police and event organizers, has proven effective in preventing confrontations and violence during public gatherings, such as demonstrations or football matches. On 2 November 2021, the OSCE Mission to Skopje delivered a workshop to introduce the concept to the senior police management of North Macedonia.

The OSCE, together with the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), supported the third Annual General Meeting of the Balkan Asset Management Interagency Network (BAMIN) held from 27 to 29 October 2021 in Tirana, Albania.

A five-day OSCE online training course on the Dark Web and virtual currencies for criminal justice practitioners from the five Central Asian OSCE participating States concluded on 29 October 2021.

On 26 October 2021, the OSCE convened the first meeting of the Multi-Agency Committee in Serbia established as part of its project, Enhancing Criminal Justice Capacities for Combating Gender-based Violence in South-Eastern Europe.