With the intention of supporting the development of a sustainable community policing service in the Host Country, the PDD assists the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MoIA) in strengthening its prevention structures at central and decentralized levels.
The project consisted of two phases in which each of the 8 Heads of Prevention developed and implemented a regional action plan on prevention in three selected topics – which for 2010 included burglary prevention, drug awareness and child trafficking.
In Phase I, the project supported managers of Prevention Units in preparing Regional Prevention Action Plans (RPAP) to tackle three topics relevant for developing Prevention Units in the SIA and which presented security concerns to the local population. Templates for the RPAP together with guidelines were developed by PDD. For the purposes of the development of the managerial and planning skills of the senior managerial personnel within Prevention Units, a 5 day training session on strategic planning with special focus on Action Planning for the Prevention Units was delivered by consultants from the Macedonian Centre for International Cooperation - MCIC (under the Mission’s Window Contract for Capacity Building Services).
Phase II involved each prevention activity in the RPAP being assessed by PDD CPA’s in accordance with pre-set evaluation criteria. Those plans that passed the assessment were implemented with financial support from the PDD, monitored by the CPA’s.
At the end of the year, a national workshop was organised in order to discuss lessons learned and share the experiences gained through the planning and implementation process. During the year the implementation of the project was facilitated through the use of different community policing mechanisms, such as Citizen Advisory Groups and Local Prevention Councils, dissemination of awareness raising material and capacity building workshops. More than 50 thematic CAG meetings and other community forums on burglary prevention were held with participation of PDD co-located staff.
The Regional Action Plans increased the awareness of the Prevention Units in servicing the security needs of the diverse population of the country and tailored their prevention activities to the needs of specific target groups with the aim of further developing confidence in police – public partnerships.
Results:
In relation to the specific aims of the campaign – tackling Burglary, Child trafficking and Drug Awareness there were 11 LPC meetings held to discuss the issues, together with 135 CAG meetings and another 167 various workshops and meetings. The initiative was promoted through local media outlets and also over 87,000 flyers were distributed and over 5,000 posters displayed giving the public a greater knowledge and understanding of the issues raised in the project.
The other, more qualitative results of this project however included better cooperation between the Police and citizens as a result of the various community meetings together with a better understanding by the local Police of the processes involved in managing crime related issues and how to action plan and implement prevention related strategies. In December, 2010 closing ceremonies were held within the SIAs to officially recognise the work done by the communities and their representatives, the local Police and CPAs – the project was hailed as a great success by all and has brought communities closer together.