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The OAS Co-organized Meeting in Peru on Police Management in the Americas

The Organization of American States (OAS) in collaboration with the Government of Peru, held the Second Meeting of the Subsidiary Technical Working Group on Police Management in Trujillo, Peru on April 23 and 24, which was attended by Directors General of Police forces and delegates from 20 member and observer states of the Organization.

The event was convened by the OAS General Assembly during its Forty-Fourth Regular Meeting held in Asuncion, Paraguay in June 2014, and aimed to promote effective cooperation, facilitate knowledge transfer, and support technical assistance and sharing of promising practices in police management between the countries of the hemisphere.

The meeting focused on four central themes: hemispheric cooperation on police training, police management and well-being, social transformations and new trends in violence and crime in the Americas and the role of community policing and crime prevention. Other topics discussed included the participation of women in public safety, police ethics and the use of technological tools to deal with crime. Participants also discussed the implementation of an Inter-American Network for the Development and Professionalization of Police Forces, an initiative that will include scholarship programs, exchanges, and police training according to the highest international standards.

The event was attended by the Deputy Minister for Internal Order of the Interior Ministry of Peru, Mauro Medina Guimaraes; the Regional President of La Libertad, Cesar Acuna Peralta; the Mayor of Trujillo, Elidio Espinoza Quispe; the Chief General of the National Police, Vicente Romero Fernández; the Director General of International Relations of the Ministry of Defense of Peru, Ambassador Librado Orozco Zapata; and the Director of the Department of Public Security of the OAS, Paulina Duarte.

At the meeting, Director Duarte recalled that organized crime "today remains one of the major challenges for all our states and our citizens," and that in this complex scenario, the institutions responsible for security, and particularly police institutions, "not only face new challenges to security, but also a citizenry that demands a better prepared and more transparent police force, closer and more committed to its community." In that regard, she noted that "only through coordinated and integrated efforts will it be possible to efficiently address the critical scenarios of insecurity in the region."

Similarly, the Director of the OAS Department of Public Security recalled the role of the Organization in supporting police reform processes that have accompanied democratization processes in Latin America. Specifically, Duarte expressed the commitment of the OAS to "reforms that have sought and continue to seek, a consolidated police force that considers human rights as a guiding principle in its work and seeks to provide the security demanded by citizens."

The results of the Second Meeting of the Subsidiary Technical Working Group will be considered at the Fifth Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Public Security in the Americas (MISPA-V) to be held in Arequipa, Peru on November 19 – 20, 2015.

The Second Meeting of the Subsidiary Technical Working Group on Police Management was created during the Third Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Public Security in the Americas (MISPA III) to monitor the implementation of the "Port of Spain recommendations for Police Management." The First Meeting of the Subsidiary Technical Group on Police Management was held in Mexico City in October 2013.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-149/15