Community policing in Bangladesh

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Friday, 17 December 2010

Author / Source : Razzak Raza

The PANCHAET system was the first ever known community policing initiative in ancient Bangladesh. In that system the local community leaders took up the responsibilities of keeping the peace in their own locality. In the British rule the system had been practiced for many years. The Indian Police Act-1861 legitimized an organized police force, and, simultaneously, ushered in the process of alienating the public from shouldering crime prevention responsibilities. The Criminal Code of Procedures made it compulsory for the village chiefs and landlords to impart information to the police about any rioting and other serious offences committed or going to be committed in their jurisdiction and land. The then superintendent of Police in Mymensing district, with the active participation of the local community members formed a ‘Town Defense Party’ in 1992. It was the first police-public joint initiative to solve local crime problems. The police bosses encouraged the community members to take part in night patrol along with the police members. The community members also invested local resources to augment the police capabilities. The ‘Town Defense Party’ still exists in the Mymensing town. However, this instance of a successful community policing implementation initiative in modern days remained only a local phenomenon.
Bangladesh tried an all out effort to implement the community policing philosophy in 2007. Under the leadership of Mr. A K M Shahidul Haque, Deputy Inspector General in charge of Rajshahi Range, 16 northern districts of the country underwent a massive community policing move. The implementation activities drew much attention of the Bangladeshi media and the police intelligentsia. But these initiatives could not keep continuity and neither were they institutionalized nationally.
Bangladesh has a national police service and force. The Police Act-1861 stipulates that all the police units and personnel will work under the Inspector General of the Police (IGP). So, Bangladesh police have been trying to implement the community policing philosophy nationwide. The Police Reform Program (PRP), a UNDP funded project, has been providing Bangladesh police with technical assistants to implement community-policing nation wide. The first phase of PRP was successfully completed in September 2009 and the second phase commenced on October 2009.
The implementation of the Community Policing philosophy is one of the most priority fields in police reform process in Bangladesh. It is singled out as the third most priority in the first ever-strategic plan of Bangladesh police. The implementation of community policing, thus, becomes one of the six components of the PRP phase-2.
Bangladesh police has been implementing a community policing system, which is very much similar to that of the western style of community policing forum (CPF). Community policing promotes equal partnership between the police and the community. Bangladesh has identified two tiered of partnerships, such as, (i)  the strategic partnership and  the implementation partnership. Under the strategic partnership, there will be (i)  a National Community Policing Advisory Committee Chaired by the Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs (ii),  a National Community Policing Co-ordination Committee headed by the IGP or an Additional IGP at the Police Head Quarters, (iii) a Crime Prevention Center has been set up in the police Headquarters having the DIG, Crime Prevention at the focal point. The Commissioners of the Metropolitan Police units and the Range DIG’s of the respective police Range also have divisional or metro cells of community policing.The implementation partnership starts at the district level. Firstly,  there is a district community-policing cell in every district under the Superintendent of the police. The additional SP or an ASP looks after the district community-policing cell. Secondly,  in the police station level there is a community policing cell having a fulltime community policing officer who coordinates the community policing activities in the police station jurisdiction. Bangladesh has nearly 600 police stations nationwide.
In Bangladesh, there is a three-tiered local government system where the elected Union Parishad (UP) constitutes the base. Each UP constitutes nine wards. Bangladesh police have taken up the wards as the basic units to implement community policing. The Community Policing Forums (CPFs) set up at the ward level have been performing the core functions of the community policing system in Bangladesh. There are two types of committees at the ward level- the executive committee and the other is the advisory committee.
The ward committee and CPFs are overseen by a coordination committee at the UP level. At the police station, there is a Thana coordination convening committee and in the district, there is a district- coordination committee. The numbers of the members of the committees formed in each level should not exceed 21. Community members from all walks of the society have been included in the CPFs. At all levels of community engagement, 33% representation of the women is also ensured. The CPFs are expected to be run, managed, and funded by the community members. A Community Policing Officer (CPO) coordinates the activities of the CPFs.
The CPFs at ward level broadly perform the following activities: a.  They advise the local police about local problems and needs b. Police take the opportunities to educate people about crime and disorder and enlist the cooperation of the public in dealing with them.             c. Common people ventilate their grievances against the police face to face, unimpeded by bureaucracy by the CPFs d. Local police can propagate their success and explain their failures to the community members through the CPFs e. CPFs provide information to the police about the success of their efforts. They are readymade evaluation panels.
The PRP will gradually support some 8,400 CPFs and  will help building capacity of Bangladesh Police to monitor operational implementation in accordance with the National Community Policing Strategy. Hence, PRP have already disbursed funds for 97 Unions of 64 districts and 47 Wards of 6 Metropolitan Police units across the country. The Community Policing Officers (CPO) of 144 Thanas, with  the active partnerships of the local community members, have been  conducting  various visible programs in more than 1,000 root level Community Policing Forums with the monetary grants of the PRP. The Crime Prevention and Community Policing Component of the PRP has been training both the police officers and community members across the country to achieve this target.
Community policing is not just a program. It is in deed a philosophy. Bangladesh Police are committed to implement this philosophy. But the community mobilization is the major task in this concern. Not only the police members, but each and every citizen of the country should be engaged in the implementation process. The responsibility of crime prevention goes to every individual, and so does the implementation urge of community policing.                     The author is a Nepali citizen