The ManicaPost
In pursuance of last week’s article entitled: “ZRP still bound by its Service Charter,” I have decided in this week’s edition to share with you the contemporary policing philosophy being employed by the ZRP.
As you may be aware, before independence, our predecessor, the British South Africa Police (BSAP), pursued a policing philosophy of policing by coercion. The police was used as an instrument of the State for serving the interests of the white community, which was the minority and was viewed as public enemy.
This reflected colonial interests, which were embedded in all Government institutions. Therefore, the BSAP bolstered the interests of colonialism and suppressed the aspirations for independence by the black majority.
The dawn of independence in 1980 left a chasm between the police and the people of Zimbabwe who had shown each other outright hostility for decades before independence. However, the birth of the people’s police service (ZRP) meant that a people-oriented policing philosophy was to be adopted hence the adoption of the new policing philosophy called community policing.
The rationale behind this concept of community policing or policing by popular participation is to ensure that every citizen is involved in policing as crime is a social problem which requires a multi-faceted approach.
What then is community policing?
Community policing is, in essence, a philosophy and an organisational strategy that promotes a new partnership between people and police. It is based on the premise that police and the community must work together as equal partners to identify, prioritise, and solve contemporary problems such as crime, drugs, fear of crime, social and physical disorder and overall neighbourhood decay, with the goal of improving the overall quality of life in their respective areas.
Essentially, this means that police no longer have the sole responsibility of maintaining law and order, but automatically all members of the community become active allies in the effort to enhance the safety and quality of neighbourhoods.
The goal of community policing is to reduce crime and disorder by carefully examining the problems in neighbourhoods and then applying appropriate problem-solving remedies.
In this regard, the ZRP came up with a number of Community Policing Initiatives which were meant to allow the general public to fully participate in crime management.
Some of the initiatives are hereunder explained.
Neighbourhood Watch Scheme
Neighbourhood watch also called crime watch or neighbourhood crime watch, is an organised group of citizens.
In other words, neighbourhood watch is a crime-prevention scheme under which members of a given community agree together to keep an eye on one another’s properties, patrolling the street and reporting suspicious incidents to the police.
In an effort to enhance transparency and to guide against some criminal elements that might take advantage and join the scheme, the scheme is therefore co-ordinated by police through the Station Community Relations Liaison Officers.
Members undergo some basic training on police duties and they are allowed to design their own uniforms.
Crime Consultative Committees (CCC)
This is an all-stakeholders committee whose membership is drawn from a wide cross-sectional representation of the community, including traditional leaders, neighbourhood watch, local business, community groups, church leaders, other Government departments, police and local residents.
The aim of the CCCs is to improve efforts to reduce crime and the community’s quality of life, by enhancing the partnership between the police and the community.
They also enable local communities and individuals to have input into issues that directly concern them and assist police to improve their responsiveness to community needs.
The committees also promote community awareness of crime and safety issues and facilitate the development of practical local initiatives.
Ideally, the committees are supposed to meet regularly with the police, table crime issues that affect them, discuss them and then come up with strategies and solutions to deal with those issues.
Business Against Crime Forums
This is another form of policing that conforms to the ideal of a multi-agency approach whereby the police, business community, elected officials, Government and other agencies work in partnership to address economic crimes and community safety.
The forum forms a basis for mutual relationship which translates into an avenue for continuous exchange of information, businesses openly give commitment to even pool resources in the fight and prevention of crime. Business Against Crime Forums are voluntary institutions, non-political, non-religious, non-profit-making organisations whose memberships are open to all individual business people and representatives of captains of industry or any profit-making organisation provided they value security in their businesses.
It is imperative for every business person to understand that crime is a risk to your enterprise and your stakeholders therefore; it would be in your interest to join these forums and help to minimise the impact of crime on your businesses and the community at large.
Police Junior Call Clubs
This initiative aims to involve young persons in policing and therefore the police go around the schools inviting school children from both primary and secondary and form Police Junior Call Clubs.
They lecture them on basic law, human rights, foot drills and general policing, among others.
The rationale behind is to catch them young and help them to desist from unruly and immoral behaviour. In addition the clubs help to:
To develop young people’s sense of responsibilities towards the society and to instil positive values in them;
To provide a wide range of activities and training for young people in order to equip them as future leaders especially police officers and develop their potential leadership.
It is of paramount importance that we all join hands to fight crime.
