What steps have been taken to develop community policing in Malawi? Since the advent of democracy in 1994, the Malawi police, aided by the UK Department for International Development, have undertaken a programme of reform. Recognising the importance of cooperation between the public and police to tackling armed crime, a coalition of NGOs launched a project to promote community policing. This short article from Saferworld and the Institute for Security Studies provides a brief outline of the project.
The project is based upon the notion of enhancing cooperation, trust and collaboration between local communities and the police service. It has sought to educate and train the police in good policing practices, especially with regard to respect for human rights. It has also sought to educate communities about the dangers associated with small arms and the need to report armed crime and illicit arms trading. This is guaranteed by community police forums (CPFs), based on principles of partnership and comprising representatives of the communities and the police. The CPFs meet regularly to discuss the community’s concerns on crime and safety and consider how best the community and the police can tackle them.
The year-long pilot phase of the project was launched in September 1999. It was run by the Norwegian Initiative on Small Arms Transfers, the Public Affairs Committee and the Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation, two local NGOs. The project had several components, including:
- conducting research and analysis of the scope of the problem of armed crime and sources of small arms in Malawi;
- hosting ‘training-the-trainers’ workshops and developing an active network of trainers to help to raise awareness of the benefits of community policing – in May 2001, the trainers were able to conduct their own training in all 33 police districts;
- producing a video entitled Protecting Our Lives: Community Policing;
- initiating proposals for legal reform, especially of the Police and Firearms Act;
- promoting the expansion of the capacity of CPFs, crime prevention panels and crime prevention committees; and
- helping with the establishment of a training programme for community-based police-civil society liaison groups.
It is now hoped that the project can be extended to the whole country and the model of community policing developed in Malawi applied elsewhere.
