Community policing as a viable solution to crime prevention

Community Policing has played a great role towards national security and this was achieved after intensive sensitisation campaigns of the public on national security. 14,953 community Policing Committees (CPCs) operating at imidugudu (village) level have been formed countrywide to facilitate all activities of crime prevention at the grassroots. CPCs set up quick and easy channels of disseminating security information to prevent crime and apprehend criminals. The chairman of every committee provides information to the nearest Police Unit, and is obliged to urge the people in his locality to provide him/her or to any other security organ with first hand information. During the 2010 presidential elections campaign, CPCs worked hand in hand with the Rwanda National Police in ensuring sustainable security where by they provided quick and factual information to the Police during the presidential electoral campaign and this resulted in an incident free election. It has been noticed that, with the involvement of the community in national security programmes, the crime rate in areas like Gender Based Violence (GBV), money laundering, drugs as well as theft have reduced tremendously in Rwanda.As regards CPCs, they have provided useful and first hand information to the Police on gender violence cases that occur within families and also they (CPCs) help Police and all other security organs to clearly identify the very people said to be the source of all problems. In a recent robbery incident, the partnership between the Police and community, enabled the Police to recover Rwf40 million that had been stolen from Ndoli Joint Super Market. Through input from the community, the thieves were caught in Bugesera District as they tried to cross to Burundi. Another huge amount of money worth Rwf70 million that had been stolen from the Bank of Kigali was recovered and the fraudster criminal was arrested at Gitikinyoni while trying to escape. That is not all. In August this year; Police arrested some employees of the Commercial Bank of Rwanda for stealing money from the bank’s treasury and transferring it to another client’s bank account with the intention of withdrawing the money later. A total of Rwf20 million was recovered —all as a result of the cooperation between the police and some individuals. Police also recovered Rwf40,000,000 which had been stolen from different clinic owners by one Joseph Cyiza who forged the stamp and the signature of the Minister of Health which he (used) on the invitation cards he personally wrote asking clinic owners to attend a conference and each was supposed to contribute Rwf1.2 million. A total of Rwf40 million had already been deposited on Cyiza’s bank account but he was later caught after he had only withdrawn Rwf2 million. This only indicates that citizens working together with the Police results in a reduction in crime rates. Therefore, citizens involvement in national security through national security programmes by providing quick and first hand information to the Police and other security and administrative organs about anything will help maintain the peace and security that Rwandans have fought so hard to maintain. abossie07@yahoo.com