WINDHOEK – A pilot grassroots community-policing project has significantly reduced crime in Windhoek’s outlying informal settlements as well as formal settlements within the city.
This was said by Chief Inspector Josia Shikongo, the Commander of Wanaheda Police Station during a visit by British Minister for Africa, Mark Simmonds, MP, yesterday.
Simmonds is on a four-day visit to Namibia to inter alia check on the progress made with community policing, which is financially supported by Britain.
The project was started by the Namibian Police way back in 2008 with financial support from the British High Commission, and several members of Nampol received training at the Bramshill Community Policing College in the UK.
Simmonds and his entourage including the High Commissioner, Marrianne Young, and Deputy Minister of Safety and Security, Erastus Uutoni, undertook a tour of the informal settlements and visited several constituency offices where they were greeted by the Women and Men Network against Crime and various neighbourhood watch groups.
Various cultural groups who sang and danced for the visiting entourage enthusiastically greeted the group. Simmonds used the opportunity to commend members of the crime watch groups for their dedication and commitment to make their neighbourhoods safe and crime free.
At the different constituency offices, the councillors each thanked the British Government for its unwavering support and assured the British dignitaries that their support is not in vain as crime has been reduced to a great extent in their communities thanks to the various crime fighting groups. Simmonds assured members of the groups that the UK would continue giving financial and logistical aid.
Chief Inspector Victoria Matjila who gave a brief overview of the whole community policing initiative said that it has grown in stature since its inception and that the communities in which it was established have embraced it wholeheartedly and taken ownership of it.
Deputy Safety and Security Minister Uutoni also asked the British delegation to give his ministry’s and the country’s thanks to the British Government and assured Simmonds of his ministry’s support for the innovative community project.
Chief Inspector Shikongo told the delegation that at the start of the project 73 officers were deployed in the community and that it has been reduced to 42 due to the increase in cooperation from the communities in which they serve. However, he said in the beginning the communities were skeptical about the entire idea and accused police officers of spying on them.
But, he said, with perseverance they eventually won over the community and now can freely go into areas that were no-go areas before. He said that they could not have done it without the assistance of the various constituency councillors who were instrumental in fostering good relations between the communities and the police.
According to Shikongo they were overwhelmed by the response by the community and said that crime was reduced by more than 30 percent.
According to Matjila, Nampol plans to roll out the community policing project nationwide by 2014/15. She however reminded Simmonds that it is an expensive exercise and announced that the British High Commission agreed to sponsor training and public awareness campaigns to the tune of N$290 000. She also said that they are still working on a common community policing module that will be implemented nation-wide with the help of community policing experts from Bramshill College in the UK.
Simmonds said that his visit to Namibia is to strengthen the already strong bilateral relations between his country and Namibia, but that he was keen to visit to gather information on the efforts made in community policing.
He said he was pleased to be in Namibia and impressed by what he witnessed so far. He was delighted that the UK could in a small way contribute to such a worthy exercise and again thanked the members of the crime fighting groups and assured them that the United Kingdom would continue to work with them.
By Roland Routh