11 May 2010

BELGRADe - First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Ivica Dacic and Minister of Public Administration and Local Self Government Milan Markovic signed an agreement on community police training today.
Speaking at a joint press conference after the signing, Dacic and Markovic highlighted the importance of the role of community police in maintaining peace and order, offering help to the public and decreasing the workload of uniformed police personnel.

Dacic said that the training of the first group of 78 community police officers is being organised at the police training centre in Sremska Kamenica and that training courses for new community police personnel will also be held at other training centres.

The Interior Ministry supported the idea of forming a community police force which would have relatively less authority than regular police, but would nevertheless contribute to law and order and increase the level of security, he said.

Dacic said that the community police will be beneficial for all citizens, especially those living in larger towns, adding that joint activities between the regular and community police have been envisaged.

Markovic specified that 78 community police officers will start working this autumn in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Sremska Mitrovica, Zrenjanin and Leskovac.

He said he expects that by the end of the year between 500 and 600 community police officers will have been trained and ready to start working in other towns.

The plan is to deploy around 1,000 community police officers throughout Serbia, who will have to pass police training and medical check-ups, he said.

Source: EkoForum