Community Policing The PDD’s Community Development Division’s plan of activities in 2011 set out to support the MoIA in strengthening the newly established prevention structure within the MoIA and to further promote and develop community policing practices at a decentralized level in an effort to continuously improve police-public relations and build on the successes of previous years’ work in the field of community policing. One of the main added values of the co-located staff remained quick and precise monitoring of the security situation country-wide, in co-operation with the Mission’s Monitoring Unit. In 2011, work continued to assist in further developing the OSCE-instituted community policing mechanisms − Citizen Advisory Groups (CAG) and Local Prevention Councils (LPC). Throughout 2011, the PDD attended a total of 73 CAG meetings and 19 LPC meetings. In parallel to supporting the development of local ownership of CAGs, work continued to help establish LPCs in the four remaining municipalities in the Debar and Skopje regions. At the end of the year, there was only one municipality in the country remaining without an established LPC. A new PDD-designed opinion survey was administered to mayors across the country as part of the initiative to help strengthen the capacities of the existing community policing mechanisms. The outcome of the survey indicated that there was vast support by mayors for the activities of the Police Prevention Units. Working at the local level, the PDD Community Police Advisers continued to perform critical outreach and help attain sustainability of community policing mechanisms at the decentralized level. Small grants for local Police-initiated projects in the field of prevention called Regional Action Plans - were provided to national police counterparts, and aimed to support finding local solutions to local problems. The PDD continued to broaden support for awareness raising programmes. To support the year-round national media campaign against gun violence & promoting surrender and legalization of weapons, promotional material was developed and distributed to the public during the initial months of 2011. Co-ordination activities with the MoIA and a Skopje-based NGO continued to raise further awareness against gun violence. The MoIA year-long action for voluntary surrender and legalization of weapons proved insufficient with only 300 requests for weapons legalization being submitted and some 26 weapons surrendered. Co-ordination activities with local (Police and Local Self-Government) authorities and fellow Mission Departments were seeking innovative ways to respond to the growing trend of juvenile delinquency across the country. Supported by the PDD, policing regions were cooperating with local schools to combat youth crime, school-related violence and teenage alcohol projects. A school violence project developed in the Kumanovo region was hailed as a triumph. It has been seen as a model for other regions and was hoped to be introduced in 2012 in the rest of the country. The project brings together schools, LPCs, parents and other actors in the community in a multi-agency and systematic approach to tackle the rising problem of juvenile violence. Awareness raising activities also supported campaigns on safe graduation parties, child traffic safety, petty and seasonal crime, domestic violence and election security. In October and November, the PDD, in partnership with the MoIA and the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, ran three regional workshops aimed at assisting children on the street. The project was a follow-on activity from 2010 aimed at promoting the social inclusion of the Roma community, raising police awareness of Roma-specific safety issues, and introducing a multi-agency approach to the problem of children on the street. The Mission produced a 74