OSCE Mission to Skopje supports traffic police with a donation of scooters and bicycles

SKOPJE, 18 June 2008 - The OSCE Spillover Monitor Mission to Skopje donated scooters, bicycles and additional equipment today to support the work of the Interior Ministry's traffic police.

The police will use the scooters and bicycles to improve their presence in areas where ordinary car patrols are not possible. The OSCE Mission to Skopje has supported the Interior Ministry in improving co-operation with the ethnic Roma population, and the donation will contribute to these efforts.

"Since much of the urban Roma population lives in areas with poor infrastructure and in crowded communities, this will help the police to improve their patrolling services in these areas and have more direct contact and communication with those citizens," said Raymond Hirons, Acting Head of the Police Development Unit within the OSCE Mission to Skopje.

Ljupco Todorovski, Director of the Ministry's Public Security Bureau, who attended today's ceremony for the official handover of the equipment, said: "We have faced some difficulties in patrolling in densely populated or crowded areas like green markets and shopping streets. The citizens are vulnerable particularly in such areas where people who violate the public order can be active. With the bikes we will provide increased public law and order for our fellow citizens."

The Interior Ministry, with the help of the OSCE Mission to Skopje, has developed a Community Policing Programme in order to improve the co-operation between the police and the citizens.