Alumni in Focus
Making a Real Difference: Vladimir Cazacov
Vladimir Cazacov
Chief Commissioner, General Police Inspectorate, Moldova
Please read the instructive story of our Alumnus, Chief Commissioner Vladimir Cazacov about how law enforcement trainings and international relationships can even help governments reform the structures and the methods of police operations. Chief Commissioner Cazacov participated in four different courses at ILEA Budapest: Personnel & Facility Security (2013), Workshop on Policing in a Multicultural Environment (2014), Law Enforcement and Leadership Development (LELD) (2016), and Domestic Violence course (2016). This is his story:
“In the year 2016 the Police of the Republic of Moldova entered a period of wide institutional changes, intended to develop and strengthen the capacities of the Police. The need to implement the new methods of police work in the activity of the Police of the Republic of Moldova had become imperative with the adoption by the Government of the Strategy for the Development of the Police for the years 2016-2020 and the Action Plan for its implementation (Government Decision #587/2016). Creating a modern police service, up to the best standards and practices of the European Union and the international community, able to respond to the needs of citizens and society overall, proactively and equally, became a challenge for the police system in the Republic of Moldova, which was strongly hierarchical, closed to the community, rigid and reliant on internal planning. The financing agreement between the European Union and the Government of the Republic of Moldova (designation CRIS: ENI / 2015 / 038-144) made it possible to achieve the goals of the Strategy for the Development of the Police, establishing concrete steps, performance criteria and verification methods, including in terms of new activity methods. Community policing has become a model agreed by the Moldovan Police for establishing partnership with community members and solving public order and safety problems. This activity model, although mentioned in the 2016 policy documents of the Republic of Moldova, is not described and explained. Since 2016, the General Police Inspectorate has started concrete actions for the development of a policy document, which will set the basis for community policing in the Republic of Moldova and will be the starting point for the implementation of this model of law enforcement activity. The process started with the support of development partners, who provided advice, training support and documentation to develop a concept paper on community policing.
In carrying out the above, I was the Project Manager, managing the full range of activities aimed at establishing, implementing and developing the new Police business model oriented towards community needs and community partnership. The knowledge and information I gained from the ILEA training sessions #2509 - 2014, Workshop on Policing in a Multicultural Environment #103 - 2016, Law Enforcement and Leadership Development (LELD) (MASTER) have been instrumental in achieving the goals. During these activities I learned a lot of new things about Community Policing and how it works in countries around the world. Later, partners from INL and the Swedish Embassy's Community Policing Project and other development partners contributed. Visits were made to Sweden and the USA, where we became closely acquainted with Community Policing models.
As a result, in January 2018 after extensive consultations with the civil society, study visits, meetings and debates, the first concept paper on Community Policing in the Republic of Moldova was approved (GD #100/2018). In developing this document and subsequently piloting the new working model, I was inspired by the knowledge provided during the ILEA training sessions and thanks to the relationships formed with INL representatives who contributed to the participation in those trainings and subsequently to the development of Community Policing. In the work I was both project manager and author. Thanks to the knowledge base obtained at the ILEA training sessions, reinforced by the development partners, the Police of the Republic of Moldova today has a Community Police that comes to strengthen the relationship with the community.”
Congratulations and a big thank you for sharing this story with us. Hearing that our participants really change the world not only on a case by case investigative level, but also on deeper organizational levels, and that our trainings have a part in these processes makes us know that what we and our instructors do really matter.
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