Community policing offers a positive change in society with its active participation. The idea behind it is to build a healthy relationship between the police and society. The police act as the service provider, while the community as the client. This creates a sense of trust between the police and society. The community policing system is a joint venture of the police-people cooperation in controlling crimes through collective efforts. The idea of community policing has received a good response in different countries such as Germany, France, Italy, the UK, Sweden, and India. The UN has also recognised the need for highlighting the importance of community policing. Women have also been active agents in ensuring community policing in different countries of the world. Women in this country must also be made part of the community policing network. Against the backdrop of growing threats of extremism and drug related crimes, ensuring community participation in the maintenance of the public order and crime reduction are major challenges before the society. Police-community partnership is needed not only to ensure economic and social development but also to achieve global peace.
We do expect security personnel and police to be trained and well-versed in how best to keep the people safe. However, the individual citizens should also take some of the responsibilities upon themselves. It is the people who live in the area who know their neighbourhood or area best. According to the United Nations standards, there should be 270-280 police personnel for every 100,000 people. In Bangladesh the ratio is alarmingly low. The police also lack adequate resources and hence a need for community policing becomes imperative.
Community policing is a powerful tool in order to bring down crime rates. It is a broad-based programme aimed at improving police-public partnership, sensitivity of policemen, perceptions of the public towards the police, and awareness. Community policing emphasises proactive problem solving in a systematic and routine fashion. Problem solving should be infused into all police operations and guide decision-making efforts. Rather than responding to crime only after it occurs, community policing encourages agencies to work proactively develop solutions to the immediate underlying conditions contributing to public safety problems.
The need for police reforms has been felt for long but political interests have always come in the way. As we wait for comprehensive police reforms, community policing can help secure peace at ground level. It can deliver better security to the individual citizen, to the community and to the nation.