Police Partnerships in Prevention
The role of police partnerships in crime prevention has always been a core aspect of ICPC’s work. This has been developed through the secondment of police officers to ICPC, and has included the development of links with national and international police organizations, and the development of policing seminars and conferences to exchange expertise and provide technical assistance. Such seminars have been held in Montreal, Warwick (UK) and Washington, resulting the development of a tool kit on the role of the police in crime prevention, as well as Barmako in Mali. A report on the challenges for policing and prevention in Southern Africa was published last year, and ICPC recently hosted the visit of a delegation from the General Directorate of the Abu Dhabi Police of the United Arab Emirates who have developed a Social Support Centre. The current ICPC police representative is Mr Richard St Denis, a senior officer from the Surete du Quebec, who joined ICPC on secondment in 2003. [see Archives of the IO for more information…and publication site on web..]
This issue of the International Observer focuses on more recent initiatives concerning the role of the police in integrated community safety initiatives, and some of the benefits and challenges they raise. It includes an interview with a group of police representatives or commentators from Chile, South Africa, Australia and Quebec, Canada, on the challenges they perceive in developing their preventive work, an ICPC review of the role of the police in schools, an update on the development of women police stations, and an article on international police cooperation in combating transnational organized crime.
Police in SchoolsResponding to the interest of our Member governments, ICPC recently undertook a preliminary review of police-school co-operation programmes which are becoming more widespread. Police involvement in schools is not a new phenomenon. They have been associated with schools in many countries in a number of ways for most of the past century. Since the 1960’s there have been gradual changes, resulting by the 1990’s in the development of a variety of much more formalized and closer links between local police and schools. These initiatives are often more structured and focused, target ‘at risk’ populations or schools, and the range of tools and training materials is expanding. Part of the expansion of police-school interventions is in response to increased concerns about school-based bullying and violence, intrusion and drug use, to the increasing use of zero tolerance policies in some countries since the 1990’s, and to a climate of increased insecurity and risk aversion. The Spread of Women's Police Stations in Latin AmericaAn escalating trend in the area of policing and prevention is the growth of women's police stations (WPS) in Latin America, and other developing countries. They are staffed almost entirely by women, and aim to respond to domestic violence.
Since the creation of the first WPS in 1985, in the city of Săo Paulo, WPS have emerged in various forms in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Peru and Uruguay. WPS have also emerged in parts of South Asia, with over 100 WPS operating in India alone. |
