Helping to improve policing in Serbia's diverse communities
Thanks to support from the OSCE, police officers in Serbia are building a more diverse and tolerant service. Providing fair and effective policing to all members of society - regardless of age, gender, ethnicity or religion - is one of the keys to increasing public safety.
In October 2007, forty-two officers attended a week-long training course on diversity, equality and non-discrimination led by experts from the United Kingdom's Kent Police College. The officers will begin passing on their new skills and knowledge to some 40,000 of their colleagues in early 2008.
"Training their fellow officers will be a challenging task," says Edward Kabina, Community Policing Programme Manager at the OSCE Mission to Serbia. "But it's essential to a modern police service and valuable to the officers' understanding of their work."
The course took place at the OSCE Mission's Advanced Police Training Centre in Zemun, Belgrade, in October last year.
Understanding hate crimes better
A diversity-sensitive police service is crucial for understanding hate crimes, their causes and their effects on communities. The Ministry of Interior therefore sent 27 officials on a study trip to Kent Police College to see the concept of policing diversities in practice. The Ministry has recently amalgamated its diversity and hate crime investigation programmes.
Dejan Stevanovic, National Hate Crime Liaison Officer at the Ministry, says that they are working to ensure that diversity issues, such as those related to ethnic minorities, gender, disability, sexual orientation, age or beliefs - are addressed appropriately by the police service. "Any discrimination based on these criteria should be dealt with in the broader framework of community policing."
Policing diversities is a vital part of community policing, which assumes that an effective service is built on trust and co-operation between the police and society.
Learning from experts
In Kent, participants experienced a diversity programme similar to the one planned for Serbia and they are now more aware of how broad the community policing concept is, says Sergeant Gavin Wade of the Kent Police College.
"It is not only about being there for your community, but also about treating all citizens as partners, regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, age, religious beliefs or sexual orientation," he says. "I received positive feedback from participants who were keen to take their experiences back to Serbia."
The study visit and the training course helped to lay the foundation on which a broader diversity strategy can be built. "Integrating diversity issues into the basic police training curriculum is part of the long-term goal," says the Ministry's Stevanovic.
"By including diversity issues in the training curriculum, Serbia's police service will move closer to the standards and values that are integral to a modern, reflective and democratic police service," says Michael Quimby, Community Policing Adviser at the Mission.
The Ministry also plans to appoint community liaison officers in each of the twenty-seven regional police departments in Serbia. Their task will be to tackle issues related to diversity and minorities following what they have learned. In addition, all members of the police service will receive at least a one-day training course on these fundamental issues.
A more diverse police service
Diversity training not only affects the police's ability to help society, it also affects the police service itself, says the OSCE's Kabina. "This means that discrimination, bullying and other forms of harassment based on belief, ethnicity, disability, gender or sexual orientation will not be tolerated within the service."
The Mission is also helping to encourage women and members of ethnic and other minority groups to join the police service by holding forums and press conferences across the country. Of the 129 cadets who began an 18-month training programme at the new Basic Police Training Centre in Sremska Kamenica in December, 32 were women and 10 were members of ethnic minorities.
The Ministry and the OSCE are hoping that the school, which was opened in early December with the Mission's support, will see even higher numbers next year.