aiming to raise awareness on the problem of drugs and drug abuse in the town of Kula. The
panels were attended by approximately 500 people, including schoolchildren, their parents
and teachers.
From 21-25 May, 60 community liaison officers from 27 Serbian police districts participated in
a Mission-supported training course on “Action Planning” in Vrnjačka Banja. The purpose of
the training was to provide the police officers, who serve as a link between the police and the
citizens at the local level, with skills they could apply in their daily operational work,
especially in the co-ordination of activities with local community stakeholders. After the
training, the officers were expected to develop Local Safety Action Plans for each of the 27
police districts - a number of which were to be funded by the Mission. The Action Plans were
designed to prevent locally identified safety problems, such as drug abuse, juvenile
delinquency, thefts, burglaries, sexual offences, human trafficking, and improve outreach to
minority communities.
From 26-31 August, the Mission organized a five-day study visit to the Slovenian MoI for 13
representatives from police districts in Serbia who were implementing community policing
action plans. During the visit, the representatives from Serbia’s MoI observed community
policing practices primarily at the field level, as well as at the management level and were
given the opportunity to exchange experiences with members of the Slovenian MoI. The
study visit included meetings with high and medium level officials of the Slovenian MoI and
police officers working in the field of community policing (addressing issues such as the
organizational structure, legislation, financial matters, and training of community policing).
The visit’s programme also included presentations on preventive police work (work methods;
counselling bodies; and evaluating and measuring police preventive work), presentations on
the organization and activities regarding community policing in a Police Directorate and in the
field; and discussions on European integration requirements and their impact on the police
reform process.
The Mission further supported the implementation of 13 selected Action Plans developed by
police districts to tackle various security and safety issues identified by the police and local
communities in the following cities: Belgrade, Bor, Kragujevac, Kruševac, Novi Pazar, Novi
Sad, Prijepolje, Prokuplje, Šabac, Smederevo, Sremska Mitrovica, Valjevo, and Vranje. All
Action Plan activities were implemented between September and November 2012 and
reached out to some 20,000 people. The 13 Action Plans included the following activities:
On 12 September, the Mission supported the launching of the project “Be a Fan Not a
Hooligan” by the Smederevo district police. The launching workshop was held at the
Secondary Technical School in Smederevo and was attended by over 100 pupils, teachers,
activists of the local youth office, etc. It was hosted and moderated by two community
policing officers from the Smederevo police district. Local police officers and Smederevo
town officials who work with young people, as well as representatives of local football and
handball clubs, also participated. Police and other officials answered the pupils’ questions
relating to the problem of football hooliganism both in their town and nationwide. The
objective of the project was to raise awareness among the youth of Smederevo town about
the problem of hooliganism and to improve the level of overall safety and security of the
town. The project covered six more events similar to this that were held in other secondary
schools in Smederevo, as well as two public events at the local football club’s stadium,
hosting matches with visiting clubs from other towns in which the police interacted with the
fans, distributed promotional material and attempted to convey the message that violence in
sports is not acceptable and that young people should choose to be real fans of football
instead of hooligans. The project was implemented from September until October.
On 24 September, the Mission supported the launch of the project “For Life without Violence”
by the Kragujevac district police, by jointly holding a press conference with the police at the
Kragujevac Police HQ where the goals of the project were presented. The project was
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