representatives of the Norwegian Embassy, the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, the Deputy General Director of KP, and representatives of the Office of the Prime Minister, international organizations, different NGOs and the members of all existing 38 LPSCs attended the second Executive Council meeting. Participants were familiarized with the LPSC initiatives and shared best practices. In addition, the partner institutions and organizations presented their achievements, suggestions and future plans for the improvement of safety, security and quality of life across Kosovo. To support the implementation of the Community Policing Strategy and ensure sustainability, continuity and further development of its activities related to community safety and security, the DSPS continued facilitating the establishment of LPSCs in ethnically mixed and nonAlbanian areas. In October-November, around 34 members of five newly established LPSCs were equipped with knowledge and skills on Community Policing through the LPSC capacity building programme, bringing the total number of LPSCs to 38. A high level of Kosovo Ashkali and Kosovo Egyptian community representation in the new LPSCs clearly demonstrated the increase of trust towards the police and the willingness of non-majority communities to be involved in community safety initiatives in rural areas throughout Kosovo. As part of the capacity building programme, all trained LPSCs organized community meetings with their respective communities in order to enhance their visibility and establish communication links between the LPSCs, the respective municipalities and other actors working in the area of community safety. To strengthen the partnership and problem-solving skills in the LPSC communities, as well as to promote the community policing philosophy and support community safety projects and activities throughout Kosovo, the DSPS further trained 15 selected LPSC members as community safety trainers by the end of November (with 20% of them from non-majority communities including 5 females). These newly trained community safety trainers were added to the trainers database created within the CSCO. They were going to become an integral part of the future DSPS and CSCO-led capacity building training courses for the community safety forums. In December, the DSPS supported the CSCO in organizing a workshop aimed at reviewing its achievements in 2013. During the workshop, CSCO staff reported on the progress achieved in 2013, identified gaps and made plans for improvements. In addition, the Action Plan of the Community Safety Coordination Office for 2014 (covering the capacity building support for community safety forums) was thoroughly elaborated by the CSCO staff, representatives of the MoIA, KP, the DSPS and ICITAP. Municipal Community Safety Councils The DSPS continued building institutional capacity of the municipal and grassroots level community safety forums by ensuring that communication between the MCSCs, LPSCs and KP was enhanced in the municipalities where LPSCs have been established. For this purpose, the DSPS organized nine seminars called “Enhancing Communication among MCSCs, LPSCs and KP”, where the Mayors/MCSC chairpersons, LPSC leaders, MCSC coordinators, KP station commanders and sector leaders, representatives from the MoIA and KP main headquarters discussed pitfalls in communication, and ways of better co-operation among each other. Among the nine municipalities selected, three communication seminars were organized in mostly Kosovo Serb inhabited municipalities. During these seminars, the main problems and factors identified in hindering the effective communication between these community safety forums and KP were the lack of guidelines on communication and reporting, as well as the lack of a proper information flow. All stakeholders were given a chance to raise their concerns and propose ways for warranting better functionality of the community safety forums at the municipal and local levels. 61

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