In Chernihiv, activists and police will introduce “Neighborhood Watch” and “School Policeman”

On March 13, 2018, the presentation of the project “Safe Chernihiv – common interest, common responsibility” was held at the press center “Clean Politics”. The goal of the project is to implement an effective and accountable public security system in Chernihiv through the implementation of the principles of Community Policing (police activities focused on the community) in the areas of “Neighborhood Watch” and “School Policeman”.

The initiator of the project is the Chernihiv Public Committee for the Protection of Human Rights with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation.

Kateryna Dankova

, project manager, presented a plan of joint activities that will be implemented with the support and in cooperation with the Patrol Police Department of Chernihiv Region.

The main direction of the new initiative is the implementation of the program

“Neighborhood Watch”

, which is already operating in various cities of Ukraine.

According to

Vitaliy Kopystko

and

Inna Paseka

, representatives of the Patrol Police Department of Chernihiv Oblast,

“Neighborhood Watch”

is a program designed to improve interaction with citizens in order to increase their safety. It consists of three priorities: housing safety, cooperation with the police, and care for the territory (improvement).

“Neighborhood Watch” is aimed at increasing citizens’ legal awareness and trust in the patrol police, reducing the level of offenses, involving city residents in cooperation with the police by timely informing about the use of alcoholic beverages, suspicious persons or transport, preventing apartment thefts, violations of landscaping, etc.

Important elements of the “Neighborhood Watch” program are joint trainings with the police and community activists, meetings with citizens, and extensive explanatory and educational work. Also, within the framework of the project, various types of preventive, informational and training activities are planned for students and schoolchildren, as well as educators with the aim of preventing and averting bullying and violence in the youth environment.

“School police officer”

is a preventive form of preventing crime among teenagers, that is, a police officer who visits schools and conducts classes for schoolchildren, – said the public relations inspector of the Patrol Police Department of Chernihiv region

Inna Paseka

. – Police officers visit schools and conduct relevant classes. After all, schoolchildren have many urgent questions that can be answered more accurately by police officers, with whom children behave more openly and are interested even in such problems that they are embarrassed to talk about with their parents or teachers.

In addition, representatives of the NGO “Chernihiv Public Committee for the Protection of Human Rights” plan to conduct a survey of Chernihiv residents on key security problems in the city, the level of trust in law enforcement officers, willingness to interact with the police, etc.

“The Patrol Police Department supports such a program that is being implemented in our city. Since today the establishment of cooperation between the police and the community is a very important priority in our work. By holding various joint events, informing residents about police activities, we will also be able to understand the expectations and requests of citizens from the patrol police,” – noted

Vitaliy Kopystko

.

“We are convinced that the implementation of the principles of Community Policing (Community-oriented police activities) in Chernihiv will not only increase the level of trust in the police, but will also strengthen citizens’ legal awareness. Since the stereotype “My house is in the countryside…” must become a thing of the past. And if a crime is committed, then everyone’s public duty is to prevent it by reporting it to the police. “This is where the cooperation between the police and the community begins,” emphasized the project manager

Kateryna Dankova

.

The event was organized by the Chernihiv Public Committee for the Protection of Human Rights in cooperation with the Patrol Police Department of the Chernihiv Region as part of the implementation of the project “Safe Chernihiv – a common interest, a common responsibility” with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation.