Following the murder of a young child in 1998 in Castelar, the largest city in Morón County, Buenos Aires Province, citizens spontaneously mobilized to address the need for improved public safety. Communities established informal security forums, and soon thereafter the government institutionalized the forums in Public Security Provincial Act 12154, which led to the creation of 322 of these forums throughout the Province. But because forum participants and public officials lacked the essential skills to set up, manage, and utilize the forums, they proved to be ineffectual.

In response, in September 2000, Partners-Argentina began working with the South Castelar Forum on a cooperative planning process to improve public safety. First, Partners-Argentina trained members of South Castelar and other forums in constructive dialogue, managing conflict, teamwork, and cooperative planning. Partners-Argentina worked with the members to organize their activities, address power imbalances within the forum, build a budget and raise funds, and hear testimony from crime victims. Through these efforts, the forums began to develop the skills necessary to identify challenges, propose successful responses and ultimately expand their capacity to improve public safety.

Following these leadership and skills trainings, Partners-Argentina convened leaders from seven forums in Morón County, provincial and municipal leaders, district attorneys, the Legislature of Buenos Aires Province, local NGOs, and police officers in a series of cooperative planning sessions. These meetings analyzed the implementation of Act 12154, identifying challenges and appropriate community responses. Meanwhile, the Municipality launched a potentially competing public safety project, called the Community Crime Prevention Plan, which proposed to circumvent the forums by working directly with citizens. Partners-Argentina’s sessions thus took on an added urgency, and identified cooperative approaches to public safety that integrated the forums with the Municipality’s new plan. In addition, a major breakthrough occurred when the Municipality appointed a South Castelar Forum member, Juan Carlos Martinez, as Morón’s new Director of Public Safety; this development greatly facilitated collaboration between the Municipality and the Forums during the sessions.

Based on this collaborative work, Partners-Argentina assessed the implementation of Act 12154 and developed recommendations for improved legislation. In September 2001, Partners-Argentina’s Director, Gachi Tapia, presented a draft document at a Conference organized by the Morón Municipality. The Conference discussions focused on multi-disciplinary strategies to integrate the Forums and the Municipality’s Community Crime Prevention Plan, and how P-Argentina’s methodology advanced this goal. The feedback gathered from this Conference was incorporated into a revised version of the policy recommendations. In November 2001, Partners-Argentina made the official presentation of the policy recommendations at a public event at the Legislative Palace of Buenos Aires Province. Participants included the Ministry of Security of Buenos Aires Province, the Mayor of Morón, the Secretary of Security of Morón, Secretary of Public Relations, representatives of the security forums, legislators, NGOs and the general public.

Partners-Argentina incorporated feedback from these stakeholders into the final version of the policy recommendations, which has been disseminated among public officials, the forums, schools, media outlets, and other NGOs. The recommendations include identifying and involving stakeholders, implementing public education campaigns to increase community involvement, strengthening relations between communities and government officials, and providing organizational information on running the forums. Partners-Argentina’s recommendations also offer judicial reforms to promote crime prevention and public safety proposals, including alcohol abuse clinics, treatment for behavioral dysfunctions, and services for at-risk youth, that will combat the root causes of crime.

Through Partners-Argentina's initiative, relations between forum members and local police have improved, and citizens feel they have a safe place to report crimes without fear of retaliation. Many of the consensus-building skills developed in the forums will be used to implement community policing, substance abuse clinics, community-wide recreational activities, foster care services, and other proposed initiatives. Further, based on Partners-Argentina’s recommendations, the Morón Municipality has initiated the integration of the two public security programs, and newly elected members of the Provincial Legislature organized a Security Commission in which Forum members closely collaborate with policymakers and promote citizen participation in public policy implementation. The community-wide benefits of Partners-Argentina’s work were demonstrated in the 2001-2 turmoil in Argentina, during which Morón remained one of the few non-violent counties in the Province of Buenos Aires.

Additional Resources
1) Partners-Argentina's Public Safety Policy Recommendations

2) Press Release Announcing Partners-Argentina's Presentation of Legislative Recommendations for Public Safety