Gombe State Police Command on Monday commenced training of 23 Divisional Police Officers (DPOs) on ‘Community Policing’ towards improving service delivery in the state and the country at large.
Mr Austin Iwar, Commissioner of Police in the state, said at the commencement of the four-day training in Gombe that the exercise would assist in refreshing the knowledge of the officers in basic policing skills and practical partnership with the community.
According to him, this will help improve service delivery in line with the community safety and crime prevention strategy of the state command.
“With the commencement of this training, the Gombe State Police Command has decided to reinvigorate police-community partnership approach to policing, in line with the policy of the IGP.
“This is also in line with the determination of President Muhammadu Buhari to make ‘police- community’ partnership approach to policing, the central focus, to make our communities safer”, he said.
He said this approach also encouraged active involvement of communities towards reducing, preventing and detecting crime and anti-social behaviors.
“It increases community safety by means of jointly identifying problems and proffering solutions of mutual benefit to the public and the force.
“Community policing is basically a change from our traditional policing styles, to more people- centered approach, where policing priorities are determine by concerns of the community,” he said.
According to him, the DPOs are the primary provider of service and that at the end of the training, they will train other policemen and women in their respective stations
