Advanced Community Policing Training (UAE)

From April 13-17 2014, Hedayah and the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) convened a training course entitled “Institutionalizing Community Policing for Countering Violent Extremism (CVE): From Policy to Practice” in Abu Dhabi. The course was a follow-up to Hedayah’s beginners course on community policing held last June.

21 participants representing seven countries (Jordan, Morocco, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Pakistan, Somalia, Tunisia) gathered for interactive lectures and group exercises that use an interactive process to help critically think through context specific Community Policing for CVE institutional reform strategies. Groups of participants also explored case studies and developed their own strategies in order to further implement community policing in their local contexts.

Counter-terrorism experts have increasingly recognized community policing as an effective response to the challenges of CVE. Community Policing is a philosophy that removes the “us v. them” mentality from the police’s relationship with the community. Authorities and local community members work together to identify violent extremism in its beginning stages.