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The Role of Government in Institutionalizing Democratic Governance
work alongside citizens, think tanks, civil society groups and local
media to solve challenges and pressing issues.
In the field of public safety, IRI has, by way of example, lent assistance
to municipal governments to conduct town hall meetings and public-
private working groups where local actors can come together with
government officials to analyze vulnerabilities that are conducive to
crime and other manifestations of insecurity. Meetings often begin
with participants conducting diagnostics of the issue at hand and then
identifying initiatives that can deter insecurity. The results of these
interactions has seen the deployment of community alarm systems, such
as the creation of whistle-carrying neighborhood watch groups, as well
as the implementation of anti-graffiti campaigns. Another consistent
result has been improved relations among government officials, local
police authorities and residents, with the most significant outcome
being a collaborative effort to reduce crime and heighten public safety.
In the city of Cucuta, Colombia, for example, polling demonstrated
that distrust of the police was a deeply held perception among citizens.
Consequently, IRI worked with the local government, a community
police unit, the University of Rosario, the United Nations Office on
Drugs and Crime and
Corpovisionarios
, a local CSO, to design a public
awareness campaign and a series of educational workshops focused
on discouraging the ownership of illegal weapons among school-aged
children. In addition to the campaign, this collaboration served as
a foundation for enhanced communication and improved working
relationships among public institutions, citizens and civic groups.
Today, these actors continue to actively collaborate in crime prevention
efforts.
In Mexico, IRI works with
Movimento Pro-Vecino
a nation-wide NGO
focused on citizen security, to create and implement a program called
Together for Our CommUNITY. This one initiative currently spans
three states and 15 wards. The program brings local residents and civil
society organizations together with a mayor’s office and police officials
to analyze and develop solutions to local safety concerns. Thus far,
