Over 400 businessmen and women on Thursday started a three-day workshop on community policing, under the theme ‘Community Policing as a contemporary police strategy’. The training, conducted at Nkumba training camp in Burera District, is jointly organised by National Itorero Commission and the Rwanda National Police (RNP).

Participants are traders from the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) from the urban districts of Kicukiro, Gasabo and Nyarugenge.

Police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Damas Gatare said the training seeks to highlight the role of community policing as a contemporary strategy to prevent crimes with a view to enhance partnership with the private sector.

ACP Gatare told participants that the concept of security has expanded dramatically to include threats that affect not only the armed forces, but also the political, economic and social spheres of human security.

"RNP adopted new techniques of e-Policing to respond to emerging security challenges that reflect the complexity of modern security threats that require endorsing community policing philosophy,” ACP Gatare said.

He said that best way of doing business should move with national interests and government policies and urged participants to develop a sense of self reliance and agaciro  (dignity) and to support the Ndi Umunyarwanda programme, which seeks to promote ‘Rwandanness’.