BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, April 17 (UPI) -- Security experts from Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkey met Friday at a conference to address ways to reform Kyrgyzstan's police.
The conference, sponsored by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, brought together more than 150 experts to discuss police reforms and developing a national program to counter transnational criminal groups trafficking illicit drugs in Kyrgyzstan and throughout Central Asia, the OSCE reported.
Officials said the conference Friday, which marked the Kyrgyz Interior Ministry Police Academy's 40th anniversary, was designed to establish ways to improve the Kyrgyz police's capabilities and its role in the country.
"The education and training that the police receive has a direct bearing on the quality of their professionalism and service delivery to the public," Ambassador Andrew Tesoriere, head of the OSCE Center in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
"The OSCE organized this conference to support consolidating and improving the content and direction of that education, drawing on a wide range of experience and views."
