OSCE introduces concept of dialogue policing to senior police officers and parliamentarians in Armenia

Policing public order based on democratic principles was the focus of a roundtable discussion organized by the Strategic Police Matters Unit of the OSCE Transnational Threats Department in Yerevan on 14 November 2019 for 11 high-level Armenian police officers and five Members of Parliament from the Standing Committee on Defence and Security.

The discussion introduced a concept for Public Order Management known as dialogue policing, and is considered to be the first step towards a reform of Public Order Management in Armenia.

Dialogue policing places emphasis on oral and informal communication with the aim of preventing confrontations and violence connected to events like demonstrations or football matches.

The concept was presented by two experts on dialogue policing from Sweden and a police officer from Ukraine who talked about the reform experience in her country. Representatives from the Delegation of the European Union to Armenia and the Swedish Embassy also attended the discussion.

“We highly appreciate the support offered by the OSCE since 2012 in advancing police reforms in Armenia and look forward to renewing and expanding this co-operation,” said the Deputy Head of International Relations Department of Armenia’s Police, Armen Sedrakyan. “This event comes at a very important period when the Armenian Police conceptualizes a new policy reform strategy to further the adherence to the principles of democratic policing.”

Addressing the event participants, the head of the Police Public Order Department, Georgi Aivazyan stressed: “The police is at the frontline of demonstrating the government’s efforts in democracy-building, strengthening rule of law and improving the delivery of public service. In this context, we welcome the OSCE’s initiative of presenting the Swedish model of dialogue policing, which has internationally been recognized as a tool for effectively shifting policing approaches towards a knowledge-based and people-centered service”.

The roundtable discussion was organized as part of the Armenian Co-operation Programme, in the project on Strengthening Police-Public Partnership in Armenia. The activity was developed in close consultation with national institutions.

The next step could be to explore the possibility of implementing the concept where policies are adopted and then providing training courses for relevant police officers.