Crime Prevention Through Community Policing Interventions: Evidence from Harar City, Eastern Ethiopia

Abstract

In Ethiopia, community policing has been announced ofcially as a national program in 2005 E.C with the impetus to nullify crimes at lower tiers. There have been growing reports of prevailing crimes in Jenila district of Harar city. Accordingly, this study endeavors to scrutinize the practices of community policing and associated challenges in the study site. A mixed research deign was used to fetch out primary and secondary data sets. Hence, the participants’ views were captured through questionnaires, key informant interviews and focused group discussions. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency, bar graph and percentages. The fnding of the study revealed that a greater proportions of the respondents recognized that community policing practices had contributed in preventing crimes; burglary 94 (27%) and robbery 77 (22%) as most frequently recurring and reported types of crimes in the city. While community policing structures and concerned actors operate to smoothly run the programs, there were cropping up predicaments at the grass root levels. Limited awareness among the residents, inadequate fnancial resources and professionally ill-qualifed human power were reported as major obstructions. In the face of increasing crimes, both in terms of intensity and types on the one hand, and intricate challenges to penetrate through on the other hand, the communities of residents aspire to dive deep with a sense of ownership and exploit the opportunities for intensifying the programs stated in community policing programs. Eventually, there was need to move in concerted manner to lessen the impacts of crimes in Jenila district of Harar city.

Pemolisian Masyarakat Dan Pengamanan Swakarsa Sebagai Kebijakan Kriminal

“…(Zikhali, 2019) Perpolisian Masyarakat di Ethiopia bisa menumbuhkembangkan keasadaran masyarakat dalam menanggunglangi kejahatan, sehingga masyarakat berpandangan bahwa keamanan masyarakat merupakan kebutuhan bersama. (Italemahu, 2019) Ini menunjukkan pentingnya kemitraan polisi dan masyarakat untuk menanggulangi kejahatan, tanpa strategi ini tidak akan efektif dalam menanggulangi gangguan kamtibmas /kejahatan.…”

Public Trust and Service Delivery in the National Police Service, Nairobi County, Kenya

“…The practice of community policing in Kenya seeks to expand the partnership to all other government agencies, the private sector, Non-Government Organizations (NGO's), and Civil Society Organisations (CSO's). The overall goal is to improve public safety and the quality of life for all persons and it falls on the premise that police alone cannot control crime and disorder and promote residents' quality of life [1]. Studies have also shown that when the public cooperates with the police by reporting crime, identifying suspects, and mitigating the social conditions that lead to crime, the police become more effective in their public safety role.…”

Reconfigured securityscapes in Louis Trichardt: Possibilities, limitations, and contradictions

“…In Durban, Kalina et al (2019) highlighted the phenomenon of securitization as a tool for the on-going privatization of public space, which is done at the expense of excluding urban poor citizens. This worldwide phenomenon is not only peculiar to South Africa (Frühling and Cancina, 2005;Lemanski, 2006;Maguire et al, 2017;Rukus et al, 2018;Adugna and Italemahu, 2019;Karreth, 2019;Thuku, 2021). Indeed, urban space is a contested space, and if one adds the right to the city discourse, crime, safety, security, and, at times, violence are used as the instruments in (re)producing and (co)production of spatial enclaves of crime, safety, and security.…”