Prosecutors and police to begin work directly in mahallas

By the end of 2025, the heads of district (city) internal affairs bodies and prosecutors’ offices in Uzbekistan will be stationed directly in mahallas, where their daily work will begin and end. This initiative is outlined in the concept of “Targeted Measures to Prevent Crimes in Mahallas with a Complex Criminogenic Situation.”

The main purpose of the concept is to stabilize the criminogenic situation in mahallas and ensure a safe environment by combining scientific approaches with practical organizational and preventive measures.

According to the document, the activities of law enforcement bodies will be gradually established in mahallas. A system of mandatory reporting on the condition of individuals committing offenses within the family—particularly quarrelsome and conflict-prone families—will be introduced, requiring updates at least once every three days.

Additionally, the “mahalla seven” will form “mahalla propagandists” groups to carry out public awareness campaigns on crime prevention. “Alarm” buttons will also be installed near public facilities, multi-storey apartment buildings, and private houses.

This concept was approved by the Presidential Decree “On Amendments and Addenda to Certain Resolutions of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Aimed at Further Increasing the Effectiveness of the Early Crime Prevention System in Mahallas,” adopted on August 18.

The resolution sets out the following objectives:

•  Ensuring full coverage of high-crime mahallas with modern surveillance cameras integrated with artificial intelligence systems;
•  By the end of this year, increasing technical protection coverage of individuals’ property to 30 percent, and legal entities’ property to 60 percent;
•  Expanding the training system at the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs by introducing distance learning formats and gradually increasing admission quotas for the bachelor’s program.

The resolution also approved model requirements for the organization of “exemplary safe streets” and “exemplary safe houses” in neighborhoods with difficult criminogenic conditions. These requirements include:

•  Full nighttime lighting of residential and pedestrian areas;
•  Partial lighting of closed streets, corridors, and low-traffic dark zones where crimes are likely to occur;
•  Compliance with technical monitoring standards for vehicle parking lots;
•  Regulation of illegal (mobile) street trading;
•  Elimination of unattended basements, attics, and garbage dumps.

Specific tasks for creating such “model safe streets” and “model safe houses” will be outlined in quarterly and monthly “road maps” at neighborhood, district, and regional levels. Stickers indicating this social status will be placed at the entry and exit points of designated areas by the “mahalla seven.”