Police Reform

Police Reform Team pays a visit to Khujand

On July 21, 2013 the National Project Officer on Police Reform Firdavs Odinaev and Chairperson of the Civil Society’s Working Group (CSsWG) on Police Reform Sergey Romanov visited Khujand, Sughd district.

The purpose of the duty trip was to meet with the Civil Society Advisory Group that was established in April of this year to encourage more active involvement and participation of local community in managing the police reform process. The field trip to Khujand was initiated jointly with the Chairperson of CSsWG.During the meeting, Odinaev briefed the participants about the latest police reform activities and the projects to be implemented in the future with the active participation of civil society organizations to assist the law enforcement agencies.

During the meeting with public organizations, Sergey Romanov presented the results of the monitoring visits to the police stations in Sughd, Khatlon and Mountainous Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) that were organized together with other partners from CIS countries. In his presentation, Romanov informed the participants about the progress of work and the way police officers are implementing their job procedures while being on duty and how they are dealing with the people complaints, access of the community to information at the police stations, etc.

The OSCE Officials also reminded the civil society organizations about their role of developing a concept on community policing, public safety and crime reduction to be discussed during the Republican round table “Civil Society Advisory Group”. It is envisaged to establish a Republican Council Civil Society Advisory Group to assist the police reform process throughout the implementation of State policy as it is stated in the Provision on “Civil Society Advisory Group”. The abovementioned round table is envisaged to be held on October on this year with participation of all public organizations established within the administrative centers of Tajikistan.

During the discussion, the Civil Society Organizations suggested to disseminate accurate and timely information about the Ministry’s progress in formulating the Police Reform Programme. It was suggested to keep all the internal and external stakeholders informed about the exact scope and direction of the proposed path of reform. It should be done not only through the Police Reform web-site and web-site of MIA, but also through brochures, Mass Media and other outlets due to the lack of access to the Internet in some areas.