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In Erzurum, one of Turkey’s Eastern provinces, instead of taking action after an incident, security forces take precautionary measures to prevent crime and diminish factors which cause it. Applied under the security forces’ Community Policing Unit, this initiative represents a move from a reactionary to a precautionary security model, exemplifying one of the fundamental goals of the Improvement of Civilian Oversight of Internal Security Sector project, launched in November 2007.
Run by the Ministry of Interior with technical assistance from UNDP and funded by the European Commission, the Improvement of Civilian Oversight of Internal Security Sector project aims to reconsider the existing structure of the security forces and develop recommendations to increase transparency and accountability in restructuring the relationship between citizens and security forces around a more democratic framework. UNDP Democratic Governance programme manager Leyla Şen defines civilian oversight as “the establishment of the necessary political, cultural, military and social processes suitable in order to have an environment necessary to ensure human dignity.” Put differently, civilian oversight is in terms of internal security is actively ensuring public safety and security in an institutional framework through national and local security forces while collaborating with the civil authorities (governors, sub-governors) and members of the civil society. Civilian oversight is also part of Turkey’s wider reform agenda aimed at improving the technical and institutional capacities of its public administrative system for enhanced democratization and modernization, and in full compliance with Turkey’s efforts to accede to the European Union (EU).
Research conducted in the scope of the project indicates governors and district governors responsible for overseeing policing and law enforcement lack the necessary institutional capacity, democratic governance mechanisms and technical knowledge and resources to perform their civilian oversight functions. In view of the existing challenges of civilian oversight and recognizing the need to further the reform of the internal security sector in Turkey, the project is designed to offer a sustainable working framework for facilitating the internalization and full implementation of accountability and transparency in the management of internal security affairs. The overall aim is to establish and ensure a citizen-centered democratic oversight function of internal security services and to promote the expanded and effective enjoyment of fundamental rights and freedoms of all citizens.
The project has been launched in the three pilot provinces of İstanbul, Erzurum and Niğde. The population structure, registered crime and victimization rates and geographical locations of the provinces as well as staff infrastructure and effective civil society potential were taken into account in the process of their selection.
The three day meeting organized in Erzurum on 17-20 August, was attended by security forces, human rights boards members, media representatives, Erzurum deputy governor, academics and UNDP representatives.
During study groups organized in the first two days of the meeting, efforts to develop an action plan defining civilian oversight structures specific to the city of Erzurum were outlined. In addition, issues concerning the functioning of human rights boards, training on communication with various publics for board members, and establishing means of communication on civilian oversight between various sectors were addressed. Findings presented at the Steering Committee meeting pointed towards a need for research and analysis, policy, strategy and system developing mechanisms. Presenting at the meeting, police chief İrfan Demir claimed that the police force has gone through important changes in the past two years. Demir explained that in the process, the police became more open to criticisms from the local community establishing empathy which will lead to increased transparency. Despite Demir’s conception, İzzettin Genç from the Erzurum Bar Association who defined civilian oversight as “those who exert power to be held accountable by the public” said that although recent developments are promising, there are still shortcomings in the transparency of the security forces’ actions and in answering citizens’ needs. In the project which aims to strengthen communication between security forces and the community, Leyla Şen suggested that a transparent communication strategy be shared with the community to overcome the possible drawbacks resulting from the police in uniform and to instill the notion that the police are ordinary citizens doing their job.
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During the August 19 Media Round Table meeting, the necessity of a healthy relationship between public institutions and the local media was laid on the table. In the two sessions that were held in parallel, a group of media participants discussed the media’s expectations from the public sector while another group of public servants and police forces discussed the public sector’s expectations from the media.
Journalist Mehmet Altan, who facilitated the public sector session, expressed the need for very intense information and communication while presenting the findings of the session. He summarized his speech with the following sentences: “If the basic concepts, legal norms and regulations that frame this operation are not widely shared between and deepened by the state, society, occupational organizations and the public sector, more time will be needed to overcome difficulties. I believe that the process will flow much faster if everybody opts for this efficient informative communication as their principle aim within their own domains.” Altan concluded that “adopting a citizen-centered state understanding, and creating a strong basis on which the relationship between the citizens and police forces should stand, is an obvious difficulty.”
At the end of the session, facilitator Assoc. Prof. Ruhdan Uzun from Gazi University, Faculty of Communication stated the results of her research titled Topics that Prevent the Healthy Procession of Journalist-News Resource Relationship. It was expressed that the research shows the relationship between public servants and the media not to be systematic, and that this relationship may vary according to the administrators’ initiatives and behavior towards the media. Additionally, some participants mentioned their hesitations about the sanctions that may spring from publishing news which may be claimed to be an intervention in legal processes or the police.
For more information about the project, please visit www.icguvenliginsivilgozetimi.org or UNDP's project website.
WITH THE COMMUNITY FOR THE COMMUNITY
The Community Policing initiative, in effect since 2006, is being supported in the scope of the project as a tool for civilian oversight.
Operating in various regions in Erzurum, the Community Policing Unit is working With the Community For the Community to establish a strong dialog with citizens to come up with solutions to problems of all kinds. According to the unit chief Engin Özyurt, “the police know no boundaries” in Erzurum.
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The Community Policing Unit initiative aims to increase citizen participation in the activities of the police force through mutual information exchange and overcome some of the existing stereotypes regarding the police in general by regularly visiting local businesses, victims and residences to provide security training, listen to their problems and follow up with reports. Among the many projects of the unit are organizing visits to youth centers to alert young women and men about security issues by using cartoons, organize blood donation campaigns with the Red Crescent and provide training to local residences at coffee houses through Responsibility Area Comfort Meetings. In expressing the police’s dedication, Özyurt says “we, the police go to the people and win their sympathy.”
Such qualities indicate that the Community Policing Unit in Erzurum has adopted the precautionary security model which takes measures to prevent incidents, therefore, setting an example to a more democratic and citizen-centered approach in the internal security sector in Turkey. Erzurum deputy governor Gürkan Polat, who supports the transformation of services provided by the police, said that the Community Policing Unit has recently elevated to a higher standing within the police force and that the initiative is being strengthened in the scope of the Improvement of Civilian Oversight of Internal Security Sector project as a result of studies conducted in Spain. He further added that it is expected for the initiative to also be adopted in other provinces.