Due to cooperating with the Freedom of Information Center the RA Police have made essential progress towards freedom of information and transparency.
In 2014 Freedom of Information Center developed and launched “The Freedom of Information and Transparency” Index, which consists of 53 criteria. In June 2014 the RA Police took only the 25th place through the 37 bodies getting 58.5 points out of 100.
After getting the “Freedom of Information and Transparency” Index results the RA Police requested the FOICA to contribute to reforming their activities in the freedom of information area and to ensure transparency via www.police.am official website.
As a result of cooperation with the FOICA, the information on the Police website was increased. At present the following information categories can be found at www.police.am:
- The order of getting information from the Police;
- The sample of information request;
- The statistics of citizens’ requests applied to the Police;
- Declassified information (Police was the first in the state system of government);
- Opportunity to follow the passport departments in the online regime;
- Contacts of officials responsible for freedom of information.
Besides, according to the 17 September 2014 decision the chief of the RA Police commended the heads of central machinery services, educational complex, Yerevan, and regional departments as well as their territorial departments, “Zvartnots” airport linear department to appoint officials responsible for freedom of information during 10 days.
It’s important, that due to the order, the professional preparedness of officials responsible for freedom of information has been reviewed. The head of the legal department of the Police has been commended for organizing seminars and training to improve the professional qualities and skills of officials responsible for freedom of information and making this sphere more effective.
It was also mentioned in the order that there is a strong need to strictly follow the requirements of the RA law on Freedom of Information.
The work done by Police for realizing the FOI rights was reflected in the “Freedom of Information and Transparency” Index. The FOICA changed some questions in the index taking into consideration the changes and published new information carried out by the Police which a result in the Police getting 70,5 points instead of the previous 58,5 and taking 7th place instead of the 25th.
