THE POLICE force is the guardian of the people. It is designed to uphold the law and to ensure that communities lead a decent, peaceful, and crime-free life. Thus, the police force works for and with the people. It should not and must not work against the people. Its main purpose is to protect, guard and defend the lawful rights and security of the communities. Thus community policing (CP) is the main function of the police force. Further, the concept of municipalisation and decentralisation is meaningless if the police force does not devolve powers locally. CP is the effective way to devolve power. How do the police work presently? Has the Mauritius Police Force (MPF) got a CP strategy? Do we feel secure and confident that the police care for the community? How far is CP seen in practice? What education do the police need to enforce CP meaningfully? Can CP be the virtuous circle to uproot organised and petty crimes? This paper illuminates CP as the main strategy for Mauritius Police Force to make people feel safe in the light of rising crimes, fraud and murders.

Crime busters

The traditional role of the police has been to arrest and prosecute criminals. This has been the main route for reducing crime and unlawful activities. The police always turn up at the crime scene to mop up the damage already done by criminals who have disappeared after committing the crime. Thus, the police has been acting as professional cleaners with an ambulance syndrome. The ambulance man always arrives when the casualty is already hurt! Some would argue that the police never arrive. This role is not appropriate and must not be adopted by the MPF. The police must have a huge preventative role and should focus more on preventing crimes instead of cleaning up the consequences of crime. Crime busters are police officers that are perceptive, responsive and alert to the environment, which they are supposed to protect. If they are not, then the rate of crime and especially petty crimes will continue to soar and damage our society.

The present practice appears to be that crimes and criminals can be tackled by beautiful Land Rovers. Police seem to be very fond of roaming around villages in expensive cars. This strategy is like fighting crimes at arms length. Nobody wants to be close to the scene of the crime and get his or her hands dirty. People will never feel secure in the villages as long as the police rest in the comfort of their De Luxe Land Rovers. The police must learn that such an approach takes them away from the people and gives an impression that the police are almost unwilling to be part of the community that they protect. Land Rovers will never be crime busters. It is the ordinary policeman-woman who should learn to be the crime busters. There is an urgent need for the police to recognise that they are the servants of the community and not the masters. To be able to serve, one should be close to the point of the service delivery even in this hitech age. Remote control gadgets can be helpful but can never become the sole source of crime control and security. The police will always be needed and therefore must be seen to be the main crime buster.

The most visible role of the police at the moment is on the road. They are seen not patrolling but assembled in organised group to monitor traffic. There is a need to ensure that vehicles are road worthy, but the disappointing thing is that traffic control seems to have become the main function and weapon of the MPF. This is clearly not acceptable and not good enough. If indeed the inspectors and superintendents are sanctioning traffic control as the main job of the local police, then a fundamental review and reeducation of the MPF is urgently needed. The senior members of the MPF must have a development programme to develop their critical thinking. Perhaps we should have foreign Police Commissioners just like in the Customs and Excise Department to reorganise the MPF, to inject a new vision within our static and sterile MPF and to put the interest and safety of our community first.

The second most visible role of the police is in the station. There appears to be a need to keep up with the paper work. Report writing, statement taking, and other filing jobs take up a lot of police time. People waiting to report incidents at the counter in the station are almost ignored because the police have their heads engrossed and immersed in paperwork. This cannot be right and should not be allowed. This type of role is just not acceptable in the 21st century when there has been a dramatic continuous rise in police recruitment. The Interior Minister must insist that the MPF produces a new master plan that clarifies the education, development, and function of the police force. What type of training the police needs in this century? How should they be organised at local level to be more effective within our modern community?

Rethinking police education

Let us remember that the police are individuals who work with and among people. This should be the first and the central premise. Therefore, understanding people should be at the heart of a radical programme of education and development of a good police force. So, what are the elements that the MPF must be taught and competent in?

• The first and cardinal principle of police education is to understand that the MPF is here to protect the people and not to apprehend, control or terrorise the law-abiding citizen. People have rights and they should be allowed to exercise their rights within the framework of our Mauritian society and culture. The police are the servants of the people and not the government.

• Learning to work with communities must be the core theme of the police force programme of education. As the main function of the police is to work with the local people to fight crimes, they should be taught how they can best build relationships with the local groups, businesses, and organisations. Nobody should assume that working with locals is an easy or taken for granted operation. It should be systematically learnt and practiced for maximum effectiveness. Without a proper strategy for learning to work with the people, the MPF is doomed to fail, is chained to a reactive approach instead of being proactive, and is surrendering itself to the whim of the government.

• The psychology and sociology of man must be the backbone of the police curriculum. The policeman must understand how people are, how they behave, and why they behave in a particular fashion to be able to make sense of the people she is employed to protect. A detailed knowledge of the dynamics of society, social strata, community development and community organisation are essential if the police is to find its place in communities. The modern police force needs to reinvent itself within the communities, as there has been a discernable gulf between the people and the police over the last few decades.

• The police must have an overview of the law of the land but they do not need to be lawyers. Thus, they must have a better understanding of the civil rights of people rather than a detailed technical knowledge of the law. The police education must concentrate on defining and clarifying the powers of the police. This should be the bulk of their education to empower them to treat people fairly and to apprehend lawfully.

• Interpersonal skills development must be a continuous theme throughout police education. The police have to deal with a multitude of situations ranging from sedentary to aggressive incidents. Thus, the police have to have a highly polished range of interpersonal skills to suit so many situations. Thus, training and development in amplifying the interpersonal communication, adaptability and versatility are crucial.

• Incident management, leadership and thinking skills are much needed in the day-to-day operation. The police must be educated in the mechanics of managing incidents as this can make the difference between an effective and efficient MPF and one which breeds chaos and antagonism. The police are aware of how a simple incident can go wrong and lead to a village riot if it is not handled correctly. Communities can break up easily if the police are not careful.

• Management Development and IT skills for senior police officers is integral for an effective local police force. The inspector must be able to organise and marshal the resources locally to provide the best quality of service to the community. Without management and leadership skills, the local police station is a shamble and it is the people who suffer at the end of the day.

The way forward: community policing

If the police is serious about providing a service to the community, then it should organise itself to do so. I urge the MPF to innovate the Community Police. This is a policeman-woman whose primary aim is to work with the community, the local people and must be on foot and not in a glossy Land Rover. Most of the police personnel in all the stations must have patrol duties most of the time. We want a visible police force close to the people. The community police force is not an ambulanceman arriving on the scene when the damage has been done but it should be more of a guardian of the community preventing crimes and putting off criminals. It is better to prevent rather than apprehend criminals.

Community police is more effective in crime prevention, law and order maintenance because:

• It is more in tune with vulnerable spots within the community.

• It is close to sources of intelligence within the community and thus reduces investigative time and waste of money.

• It builds bridges with the people and improves the image of the MPF.

• It is more accessible to people in need and becomes more of a helper than a crime solver.

• It is visible, tangible on foot patrol and a deterrent to prospective criminals.

• It is a partnership between the MPF and the people that it seeks to serve.

• The police cannot tackle all sorts of crimes on their own. It needs the people.

The MPF must devolve powers to the local inspector to organise his/her station to meet local needs and enforce innovative CP. The two issues that merit attention locally are:

• The handling of administrative matters

• The management of crime prevention

Each station must have an administrator to release police officers and senior officers from administrative and clerical duties. This is to ensure that police officers are not tied to their desks but are out on the streets patrolling and caring for the community. The police stations must be organised into teams, which are responsible for each sector of a village or town under the leadership of a sergeant who is directly responsible and accountable to the Inspector in charge of the police station. This will give the sergeant an expanding role of managing teams and be more active within the community.

The Inspector must be responsible and accountable to a Local Police Board (LPB) that has in-depth knowledge of the locality and the problems. This LPB should be made up of local community leaders, business representatives, the Inspector, One sergeant, and two ordinary members of the public. The LPB should strategically assist the Inspector to mobilise all local resources to meet the needs of the community and act as a barometer for local sensibilities and needs. The police must become accountable to the local people instead of being an instrument of the Interior Minister or Prime Minister.

The diagram below shows the relationship of the police officers with the local people and the manner in which they should be organised in teams to be more effective locally. Once the police finds its place among the local people, it can access information and intelligence to detect the hot spots of criminals, drug abuse and trafficking, organised prostitutions and burglars. This is the way to move into the heart of the problems and rid the villages and cities of the rising crimes, murders and burglars to protect our vulnerable and elderly citizens.

Figure 1: Reorganising local police force into community police teams

Conclusion

The police have a tough job and they cannot deliver quality services without the help of the local people. At the moment, the police have a stale, out of date reactive strategy and they move into the community when a crime has been committed. It is sad that crimes bring the police and the community to a meeting point. It is crime prevention and good relations that should converge the police and the community in harmony. Thus, the MPF must make a massive conceptual leap and become proactive. The police should move into the community before the crime is committed and build a network of support to bust the criminals and enforce crime prevention through working with the people.

The time is right to turn over to a new leaf at local level and to make our police more effective and accountable. This is sustainable devolution and handing power to the local people in a responsible manner. Do we have the political will to take our community to a meaningful level of accountability? Do we have Police Commissioners with the foresight to manage crimes in partnership with the community? Failure to reorganise is sentencing the people of Mauritius to a society of rising crimes.

Dr Taleb DURGAHEE