POLICE-RELATED ACTIVITIES OF FIELD OPERATIONS SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE The Presence helped the newly formed community councils (Local Safety Councils) learn from regional counterparts and implement good regional practice. These efforts further contributed to community outreach activities and encouraged local citizens, municipal authorities, police, civil society and parliamentarians to work together on solutions to reduce criminality and increase the overall public trust in police and local authorities. Similarly, the Presence continued to work with the Institute of Forensic Police to achieve international standards. Activities Related to General Police Development and Reform Strategic Planning including Threat Assessments Support was provided by Security Co-operation Department (SCD) of the Presence to develop the National Action Plan against Cannabis Cultivation 2017-2020, finalized in February 2017 and approved by the Albanian Government in March 2017. Community Policing, Police-Public Relations and Crime Prevention On 4 December, the OSCE Mission in Kosovo organized the regular meeting of the Executive Council of Local Safety Councils (LSC) in Pristina. They also invited members of the local safety councils in Albania (the three municipalities where these councils are established). The purpose was to share best practice and experience, and strengthen cooperation through these forums, which aim to increase security and improve life in these communities. In addition, it will help the regional co-operation of such forums. The Presence invited three representatives from each of the three Albanian municipalities where LSCs are established, and one community policing officer from the Elbasan Regional Police Directorate, who made presentations related to the councils and co-operation with stakeholders to improve safety and security in the country. Hate Crime On 5, 6, 13 and 14 April, the Presence organized a training programme on countering hate crimes for instructors from the State Police’s Security Academy and regional police directorate inspectors. The training sessions, delivered to all new recruits in the Academy, provided approximately 40 participants with basic skills for addressing hate crimes. This is the first time that the Security Academy has included hate crime curricula in its training programmes. The Presence delivered training sessions on the same topic to six other regions in the country in 2018. On 12 May, the Presence facilitated an ODIHR Workshop on hate crimes recording and data recording. The workshop aimed to raise awareness of the need to record hate crimes and produce high quality hate crime data, understand existing hate crime recording and data collection to identify gaps, and discuss solutions and propose next steps to improve the Albanian hate crime data network. Twenty police officers, representatives from the Ombudsman, Commissioner on Anti-Discrimination and Prosecutor Office participated at this workshop. The final result of the workshop was a set of recommendations on the improvement of hate crimes recording data. Specialized Investigations Units / Forensics Since 2014, the SCD has been providing support to the Albanian State Police Forensic Institute to develop their capacities in order to achieve accreditation according to the International standards ISO 17025. This support includes conducting audits in the Chemistry and Biology/DNA Units to identify gaps and propose recommendations, delivery of training courses and donation of kits to conduct research on Allele Frequencies of the Albanian population. Support to develop the capacities of the Biology/DNA Unit has provided positive results in finding and presenting evidence of serious criminal cases. The Presence monitored the implementation of the first of a four-phase research project on identifying gene frequencies in the Albanian population. This project, the first of its kind in Albania, is funded by the Presence and implemented by the DNA Unit of the Albanian State Police Forensic Institute. The data obtained will be used for statistical evaluations of DNA profiles at crime scenes. Identifying gene frequencies is one of the requirements to achieve the accreditation of the Albanian State Police Forensic Institute by 2020, according to internationally recognized standards for DNA analytical 43