Rwanda National Police

Policing, like all professions, learns from experience. It follows, then, that as modem police executives search for more effective strategies of policing, they will be guided by the lessons of police history.

Rwanda’s history is a tragic one. It’s a history of discrimination, dehumanization, bad and selfish leadership that made the 1994 mass killings to exterminate one ethnic group, inevitable.

The role of security organs including the so called Police institution of the time, in planning and executing this inhuman killings, left the victims with nowhere to run and hide as they were being hunted by those that were ideally mandated to save them.

There was therefore need to restore hope among the survivors and all Rwandans in general, make them safe, involved and reassured. To guarantee a safe and secure society needs close partnership between the Police and the public.  In an attempt to efficiently police the Rwandan society, the Rwanda National Police chose community policing approach (Community-based policing) whereby local communities are involved in identifying security issues and consequently finding solutions. In this regard, the Community Policing Committees (CPCs) were introduced. Members of Community Policing Committees were given skills and introduced at the village level and currently there about 80,000 of them.

Rwanda National Police has also put in place District and Community Liaison Officers (DCLOs and CLOs) at the district and sector levels respectively to monitor and coordinate CPCs’ activities.

The rationale for community policing lies in the fact that Police alone cannot maintain safety and security in communities; they need the concerted efforts of the community.

CPC members encourage the collective efforts of the population to ensure security within communities and are in direct contact with local leaders and security organs. Together with the mastery of their locale, they help devise solutions to local problems. This is paying off because where there is no Police, residents are there and they report any suspicious activity and this helps to prevent crime from taking place or to apprehend culprits.

In order to strengthen the principles of community policing, Rwanda National Police (RNP) set aside a ‘Community Policing Week’ observed annually to further sensitize and engage locals in this home-grown successful policing approach.

This approach, is therefore a two-way traffic because as the general population strives to support the policing activities to improve security in their localities, the RNP also has to support them in their development activities and ‘human security’ in particular, to prevent things like poverty, which are one of the causes of crimes.

This explains why this year’s activities to mark the force’s 14th anniversary and 20th liberation celebrations focused on supporting community development.
This year’s Police Week celebration was also a reflection on the 14 years journey since its establishment back in June 2000.

During the anniversary activities which were officially launched in Karongi district, RNP paid medical insurance premiums for 1500 people, gave ten cows and awarded eight individuals and groups with Rwf2.3 million for composing best songs and poems that promote Police-Public partnership through the community policing proactive approach.

Police also handed over a house worth Rwf9 million it constructed for a vulnerable genocide survivor – Felicitee Mukankundiye – in Busasamana sector of Nyanza district and inaugurated the construction of other four houses for vulnerable communities in the district and donated 420 mobile phones to Village Chiefs in Nyanza, to ease the communication process.

The evolving policing challenges, therefore, requires collective responsibility and it has proved a winning card in this case in Rwanda.