GISHARI - 305 police are undergoing a one-month training which will help them be coordinators between the police and the community in the implementation of Community policing activities.

"It is a way of launching perfection of community policing (CP)," Mary Gahonzire, Deputy Commissioner General of Police said while opening the training at Gishari police training school on Monday.. It was the first training of its kind:

Gahonzire said that the Community Policing Committee (elected from village and sector levels), would work hand in hand with police through Community Liaison Officers (CLOs).

Lambert Sano, Assistant Commissioner of Police and head of the school revealed that the trainees would undertake 59 courses related to the work they would be doing, which include among others, leadership, management, economics, national civic education and different types of laws. The officers come from all sectors of the country.

"Any problem you cannot solve should be forwarded to higher authorities as quickly as possible. This means laziness and other bad characters have to be left behind", Gahonzire cautioned.

She said that the training would have been carried out earlier due to its importance, but they had not made a concrete syllabus and other necessary material, adding that police would do its best to equip them with transport and other documents that would help them support the community.

Community policing, is a way of extending services to people and make them participate in keeping and maintaining of their own security. This would help in the prevention of crimes, she explained. She also said that the program was also in line with the program of decentralization.

The deputy head of police added that most conflicts begin at family level as small issues and later become big and affect the entire society. She added that with awareness, people will live together in harmony..

Police should go deep into solving people’s problems by knowing how people live and be friends of the community rather than being the police personnel who arrest, issue arrest warrants and run after criminals, Gahonzire adviced.

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