THE SECOND REGIONAL CONFERENCE WAS MADE IN İSTANBUL

The second regional conference in the scope of “Civilian Oversight of Internal Security Sector-Phase II” was held in İstanbul on 29 January 2015. In the conference, which was hosted by İstanbul Governorship, the experiences on the Local Prevention and Security Boards were shared with 80 participants from 9 districts of 5 pilot provinces.

All the pilots were participated

Undersecretary of the Ministry of Interior Sebahattin Öztürk gave information on the work to be done within the scope of 2nd and 3rd phases of the project in his opening remarks of the conference, which was hosted by Istanbul Governor Vasip Şahin. The Deputy Governors of the pilot provinces Gaziantep, İstanbul, İzmir, Malatya, Trabzon were participated in the conference as well as Provincial Deputy Police Chiefs, Provincial Deputy Gendarme Commanders, District Governors of pilot districts Çeşme, Eyüp, Fatih, Hekimhan, Kadıköy, Şahinbey, Üsküdar, Vakfıkebir and Yeşilyurt, District Police Chiefs, District Gendarme Commanders, Mayors, and officials of the Ministry of Interior, UNDP and project experts.

EFUS was invited too

The experiences on the Local Prevention and Security Boards, which were established in the pilot provinces and districts, were exchanged in the conference, to which representatives form European Forum for Urban Security (EFUS) were also invited. EFUS is a a network of local authorities from Belgium, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Italy and Germany which is active in the field of urban security.

Experiences in Turkey and the EU countries on “ISF-Citizen relations and ISF-Local Administrator/Manager Relations” and “How to improve ISF-citizen relations/ how to improve local partnership with local authorities” were the main subjects shared, developed and discussed during the conference.

S Prevention is as important as solving

At the end of the conference it was made clear that security and public order is one of the top concerns of modern societies. In modern societies public wants to be part of the service it is receiving –that includes security service as well. Being part means being involved in policy making, implementation and evaluation of internal security services. Community policing is a frequently employed method to involve communities in the security service while crime prevention –proactive policing- is as important as solving crimes

Involving stakeholders is vital

Besides, it was underlined that building trust and increasing police force efficiency require two-way communication with all the stakeholders. It is also confirmed that being visible, sharing data and information with the public, providing feedback to the citizens, actively involving stakeholders in service planning and implementation, building awareness and communication skills via advanced training methods, crime research, public opinion surveying and statistical analysis are some of the many methods of increasing trust and efficiency in the internal security sector.

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