19 May 2014
Albanian Government, a member of OGP since 2012, is currently drafting the second National Action Plan 2014-2016, a process which is supported by several consultative meetings between the Ministry of Innovation and Public Administration (National Coordinator of OGP in Albania) and Civil Society Organizations. For the first time, Albanian Government is addressing the 4th OGP Challenge: “Creating Safer Communities”, through 2 concrete commitments undertaken by the Ministry of Internal Affairs: “Setting up a “Help Line” for victims of trafficking and the establishment of “One Stop Shop”, which bridges the gaps between the police and the citizens.
Based on these concrete commitments, IDM and the OGP Coalition of Civil Society Organizations suggested the undertaking of a new commitment aiming at increasing the communication between police and citizens, aiming at increasing public security. Albanian State Police and the Ministry of Interior publish monthly crime data in Albania. Whilst this initiative should be appreciated, there is a need to enrich it with concrete tools, increasing the communication and interaction between police and citizens.
The objective of the Round Table was to bring on the table key stakeholders and interested parties to discuss the possibilities of developing and undertaking a commitment under the Open Government Partnership with a view to increasing transparency, publication of data on criminality in each area and increase communication between police and community structures of citizens.
Participants were high level representatives of the Ministry of Interior Affairs, representatives of the Albanian State Police, experts of public relations within the MoIA / State Police and Local Police Structures, Civil Society Organizations and individual experts.
Following a brief presentation on the status of OGP in Albania focusing on lessons learned and the presentation on the proposed OGP Commitment, the floor was opened to discussions. Participants highlighted that it is very important that data and official statistics on criminality be published regularly and communicated in a format usable and understandable by citizens. This will help people become aware of the risks they face, thus increasing trust in police work and contributing to the safety of community.
The proposed commitment was forwarded to the Ministry of Innovation and Public Administration for further action. You can find the proposed commitment in the following table.
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COMMITMENT |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Increasing Communication between Police and Community | ||||
| Lead Institution | State Police | |||
| Other involved actors | Government | Ministry of Interior Affairs | ||
| Civil Society, Private Sector | Coalition of OGP Civil Society Organisations | |||
| Status quo or the problem/issue to be addressed | Albanian State Police and the Ministry of Interior Affairs have established a practice of publishing monthly data tendencies in Albania. This is an important initiative; however it should be taken a step further. It is very important that data and official statistics on crime are published regularly and communicated in a format usable and understandable by citizens. | |||
|
Main Objective |
State police should make public information on crime statistics every month, so that citizens get information about crime in their neighbourhood, village or community.The publication of crime statistics in order to improve the performance of the function of the State Police:
• Raises awareness of and facilitates the effective operation of police; • Creates opportunities for prevention activities; • Makes more active and effective functional performance of the police; • Promotes active attitude in the community; • Promotes preventive measures; • Increases communication and interaction between the community and police • Increases reliability to police |
|||
| OGP challenge addressed by the commitment | Creating Safer Communities | |||
| Is it relevant to the advancement of: | Transparency | Responsibility | Citizen participation | |
| V | V | V | ||
|
Verifiable and measurable milestones to fulfil the commitment |
New or previous commitment |
Start date |
End date | |
| – Police Reports;- Media Reports;- Analysis, Studies, Reports
– Monitoring activities
|
New Commitment | July, 2014 | June, 2016 | |
