Rwanda National Police (RNP) and the University of Rwanda (UR) have entered an agreement for the latter to reinforce the force’s specialized education policing programmes. The Memorandum of Understanding which binds all colleges under UR was signed yesterday at the RNP headquarters in Kacyiru between the Inspector General of Police, Emmanuel K. Gasana and Prof. James Mcwha, the Vice Chancellor of UR, who signed on behalf of their respective institutions. The agreement will strengthen the existing partnership, following a previous agreement with the Colleges of Education, formerly Kigali Institute of Education in 2007, College of Science and Technology, former KIST and College of Arts and Social Science previously NUR in 2011, which operated independently at the time. The new partnership under one university will therefore focus mainly on exchange of lecturers, staff and researchers to support the running of the National Police Academy (NPC) programmes. Other areas will include mutual assistance in the establishment, development and validation of programmes and exchange of information relevant to policing training. IGP Gasana noted that "RNP has a vision to ensure safety and sustainability of the nation to serve the people with integrity to realize sustainable development.” "RNP will realize its mission and vision because of the servicemen who are trained and professional. We therefore need to learn more and respond to modern policing challenges efficiently, a reason why we give more value to this partnership as a winning symbol,” he noted. Prof. Mcwha observed that this is a "turning point” for the two institutions. "Rwanda is a very fortunate country and its police force has a tremendous reputation and we will help develop that reputation further, to help them understand what the issues are in the society and to support them in developing latest technologies to be used in policing in areas of computer science, ICT and psychology,” Prof. Mcwha said. This partnership comes at the time when the force is more focused and engaged in training as a vital road to professional policing. The force currently boasts of three schools; National Police College in Musanze District, Police Training School (PTS) in Gishari, Rwamagana District and Counter-Terror Training Centre in Mayange, Bugesera District.