Regular meetings vital to crime prevention

NORTHERN PROVINCE MUSANZE — The Regional Police Commander, of the Northern Province has called upon Community Policing Committees (CPC) to organise regular meetings with locals and students to explain to them their role in keeping security. Superintendent Peter Hodari said this during the closing of a three-day seminar on community policing. The seminar attracted 30 participants drawn from area districts. They included religious leaders, directors of education, officials in charge of good governance, RDF- political commissars, police officers and officials of the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission (NURC). They are meant to train the members of CPCs. Hodari observed that the public should own the responsibility of crime prevention by tracing causes of insecurity in the rural communities. During the seminar, defilement was cited among the common crimes in the area. The police blamed it on traditional cultural practices where parents marry off their underage daughters. Assault related crimes, resulting from over drinking of alcohol, land wrangles and petty theft were also cited as highly committed crimes. Participants at the seminar were asked to educate the public to be vigilant on security and to protect the violation of people’s rights especially the vulnerable groups. Community policing is a decentralised policy in which the police and the community work together to solve problems of crime and insecurity. Ends