Police Reform

Speech by the representative of the OSCE Office in the Republican Conference “Neighborhood Watch”

A Republican conference “Neighborhood Watch” was organized by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of the Republic of Tajikistan on 16 April 2013 in the State cinema and concert complex “Kohi Jomi”.

The representatives of the governmental structures, law enforcement agencies, and diplomatic, international and public organizations attended the conference.

The purpose of this conference was to raise awareness of citizens about the cooperation of Police with the community (Community Policing), and increased involvement of citizens in the prevention and detection of offences and criminality.

Opening the conference, the Minister of Internal Affairs Lieutenant-General Ramazon Rahimov emphasized the importance of Community Policing and the role of Voluntary Police in the public order maintenance. He noted that the “Neighborhood Watch” operates countrywide on the basis of the Law "On the participation of citizens in ensuring the public order" and the Government Decree "On approval of the Charter of the “Neighborhood Watch” in Tajikistan." According to him, for the time being the country numbers more than 22 thousand Voluntary Police.

The Head of Political-Military Department of the OSCE Office in Tajikistan Mr. Alastair Livingston in his speech shared the goals and objectives of the forthcoming police reform and the OSCE projects, aimed at implementation of the Police Reform Strategy in Tajikistan. He outlined that in order to promote the civil society assistance to police reform, the OSCE Office in collaboration with the MIA conducted an operational meeting "Civil Society Working Groups on Police Reform," the provision of which was approved on 13 July 2012 in the regular meeting of the Police Reform Steering Group. The same groups have been established in Khujand, Kulyab, Kurgan-Tube and Khorog cities.

"We draw the utmost attention to the involvement of civil society in the ongoing reform," said Mr. Livingston, noting that public oversight over the police work is ensured through activities, such as public monitoring, public evaluation of regulatory legal acts of the MIA, various types of consultations between the society and the state and quarterly reports to the population by the Chiefs of Police. To this end, the Office along with the MIA and civil society will develop a Provision of the Republican Council for civil society assistance to police reform and plans to organize Republican round table “Civil Society assistance in the Police Reform” in the fourth quarter.

In conclusion, Mr. Livingston added: “I hope that adoption of the Police Reform Programme will contribute to development of police into a 24/7 service provider with a broad spectrum of social services. We are confident that the ongoing reform will form an entirely new social image in the public mind of a police officer, free from corruption, and aimed at serving the citizens. “The police - are the people, the people - are the police.””

The Chairperson of the Committee of Youth, Sport and Tourism under the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan Mr. Maliksho Nematov, the Head of the MIA Directorate on Public Order Protection Colonel Barotali Hamidov and Senior Advisor to the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Tajikistan on Community Policing Mr. Jumanazar Rakhmatov also made the presentations in the conference. They stressed in their speeches the importance of cooperation amongst the MIA, community and civil society.

In concordance with the Police Reform Strategy for 2013-2020, "the police should protect public order in a way the community in question wishes it”.

The important component in transforming the police into “a service for the people”  is to enable local self-government and executive bodies’ active involvement in solving their safety and law enforcement related issues (including the neighborhoods and many-apartment houses residents that make efforts to enforce law for themselves, for instance, ensure proper performance of parental duties, strive to reduce the number of street children, combat breach of the peace, violation of moral and relationship norms and etc., in which the law-abiding population is interested).  This is based on the recognition of the fact that acting alone the police is unable to fully resolve all these problems that interfere with the security of the population and law enforcement in the society, and police tends to establish business contacts with the population.

In addition to the established and proven practice of operational activity related to Community Policing (voluntary police teams, official and unofficial “Neighborhood Watch” employees, and others), Public Councils for civil society assistance to the police reform will be created under the Ministry of Internal Affairs and regional police administrations.

Public councils on ensuring the public order will be created with the involvement of stakeholders under the local executive government and self-government bodies of small cities and villages in cooperation with the society. They will be staffed by such civil society representatives as lawyers, barristers and non-governmental organizations to develop community policing for the purpose of solving community problems in crime prevention and ensuring security in order to improve the population living standards.