On Friday, March 18 Head of Police of the Republic of Armenia, Lieutenant General Vladimir Gasparyan received the delegation led by Matthew Torigian, Deputy Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services of the Canadian Province of Ontario. The delegation had been in Armenia since March 15. The main aim of the visit was to get familiarized with the peculiarities and issues of crime counteraction and public order maintenance in our country.
Welcoming our high-ranking compatriot and officials accompanying him, Vladimir Gasparyan highlighted that the reinforcement of cooperation between Armenia and Canada is quite symbolic, because Canada was one of the first countries that sheltered our compatriots who had survived the Armenian Genocide, and today Canadian Armenians play an active role both in public life and state economic activity of the country.
Touching upon the ongoing police reforms, Vladimir Gasparyan emphasized that under new conditions there arose a necessity for fundamental reforms, therefore having a modern, professional and people-oriented police system was an imperative.
Matthew Torigian touched upon such key issues like personnel training and retraining, community engagement in policing and etc.
Vladimir Gasparyan presented the process and results of the introduction and implementation of the community policing model in Armenia, stating that the police leadership is consistent in its principles of making constant changes to achieve the major goal of having such a police service where police officers are part of the community, work in the community and for the sake of community.
The two sides also discussed other issues related to their collaboration.
At the end of the meeting souvenirs symbolizing Armenia and Armenian Police were presented to the members of the delegation led by Matthew Torigian.