Within the frames of the ongoing criminal police reform at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the institute of community officers has been launched throughout the capital. 50 community officers will start working in Gldani-Nadzaladevi Police Main Division prior to the scheduled date.

The First Deputy Minister, Shalva Bedoidze, addressed the community officers with e speech and stressed the importance of their service: “The reform at Tbilisi Police Department has been fully implemented. Community officers are deployed in all police main divisions of Tbilisi. The role of comunity policing is very important. I would also like to inform you that the functions and responsibilities of the investigation and operative activities of Tbilisi Police Department have been completely separated, which will make our police activities even more effective”.

The model of community-oriented policing, within the frames of which the institute of community officers was established, aims at strengthening the preventive activities of the police.

The competence of community officers covers such important issues as: responding to problems and challenges related to minors, domestic violence, neighborhood disputes, illegal migration, vulnerable groups. The duties and responsibilities of community officers also include: planning and implementing crime prevention activities; Information collection, systematization and priliminary processing; Proceedings of administrative violations; Responding to witnessed crimes.

Community officers are selected through a competition. Individuals selected as a result of the competition will undergo several months of intensive professional training at the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and start working after completing the training course.

In total, 365 community officers will work in all districts of Tbilisi. In order to fully implement the community-oriented policing concept across the country, it is planned to gradually increase the number of community officers and deploy them in all major cities of the country.