The need to fortify the Police Community Partnership for community safety will be top on the agenda as the Commissioner of Police, Rivers State, Mr. Sulleman Abba, declares open this year’s Police Community Relation Committee (PCRC) year in Port Harcourt.
The ceremony which will take place on Thursday, February 23, 2012, at the Police Officers Mess, Old GRA, Forces Avenue, by 10.00am, will also feature an interactive session with stakeholders on security as well as a key note address by the state police boss.
A statement by the chairman, Police Community Relations Commission (PCRC), Rivers State, Mr. Austen Yong said there was a thanksgiving service at Salvation Ministries, Birabi Street, GRA Phase One, last Sunday in Port Harcourt to seek the face of God to witness extensive police community engagements in the state in order to sensitize the people on the need to collaborate with the police for community safety.
Mr. Yong stated that although previous enlightenment programmes had been very fruitful and successful, but needed more efforts in order to effectively address the existing and emerging security threats in the communities and the state at large.
He said with the corporate objective and mission statement of PCRC, which is to breakdown the barriers of distrust existing between the police and the public through constant and consistent interaction to engender confidence building and trust, with a commitment for crime prevention, community peace and justice, adding that the greatest challenges had been knowledge deficiency in community policing practice even at very high places.
The PCRC state chairman further stated that the foundation for bridge building are understanding and mutual trust, which could only be achieved through knowledge, which he said called for serious capacity building that had necessitated this year’s theme of PCRC, “Fortifying the Police Community Partnership for Community Safety”.
He further said knowledge is critical to identifying and dealing with existing and emerging security threats and that the police and other security agencies cannot afford to alienate themselves from the people they serve, neither can the people continue to sit on the fence or trivialize bridge building efforts because of past and ugly experiences with the police and other security agencies.
He called for mass attendance of the ceremony. ####
– Emeka Jilly Ejiowhor
