Community Policing Dialogues through Ethics Advisory Committees (CI0043)

Brief description of the commitment

Created by the service note N°4701/MEMIS/DGPN/CAB of October 08, 2013 and established to date in all Public Security Police Stations, spread throughout the national territory, the CCEs are platforms for exchanges between the Police and the population, with a view to strengthening social cohesion and ensuring the security of people and property through the participation of all. Their objective is to make the proximity police a reality through an inclusive participation of the population in the success of the security missions of the National Police.

Definition of the problem

4- What problem is the commitment intended to address? - Breaking down the wall of mistrust between the police and the population; - Gaining the trust of the population; - Promote collaboration between the public and police for the success of police missions; Increasingly, the police are facing new forms of threats, such as violent extremism and terrorism. The collaboration of the citizens should allow the police to be more effective in their actions, especially to ensure the safety of the population. To date, the challenges facing ECCs are: - Distrust of the population towards the National Police, which is an obstacle to the effective fight against violent extremism and terrorism; - Reserve observed within and between communities, hindering social cohesion; - Weak operational capacity of the Police Force; - Insufficient manpower, equipment and intervention means of the Police Units, limiting the effective coverage of the territory; - Weak partnership or cooperation between the police and the community; - Weak participation of all in the community conflict prevention and management mechanism; - Slowness due to the insufficiency of equipment and intervention means, which increases the intervention time of the police officers when solicited by the population; - High security index; - Non-effectiveness of CCE meetings throughout the country; - Existence of gender-based violence (GBV). Community policing could respond to the challenges. Indeed, it is based on the idea that the police must understand the causes of the problems with the participation of the community and carry out consequent actions, which will allow to meet the expectations of the citizens.

4- What are the causes of the problem? - The mistrust of the population towards the forces of order, following the crises that Côte d'Ivoire experienced between 2000 and 2010; - the lack of communication between the population and the law enforcement agencies that are supposed to ensure their security and peace of mind. Description of the commitment

5- What has been done so far to solve the problem? - Creation and establishment of Ethics Advisory Committees in the 144 public security police stations throughout the country, by service note N°4701/MEMIS/DGPN/CAB of 08 October 2013. These committees, led by the Heads of Service, are made up of all segments of society and are a forum where the security problems encountered by the population in their areas are discussed and debated. Hotlines: 100; 110.

6- What solution do you suggest? - Public Awareness; - Multiplication of socio-cultural and sports activities (police-population cohesion sports, maintenance of health and school establishments ...); - Involvement of the population by a frank collaboration in the implementation of the police of proximity for the security, the success of the missions of Police and especially for an effective fight against the new forms of threat such as terrorism; - Perennialization of the acquired knowledge.

7- What results do we want to achieve by implementing this commitment? - Effective security of goods and people, through the participation of the population; - fight against organized crime, drug trafficking and terrorism The Ivory Coast could be inspired by the experience of the Lausanne region where most of the communes have developed a concept of community policing in an inter-communal framework.

Commitment analysis

How will commitment promote transparency? By the frank collaboration of populations and their real involvement in the activities of the ECCs in their various localities. The ECCs are therefore a tool that allows the State and the citizen to work together to achieve positive results in terms of security. Some actions of the CCE are relayed on the platforms of the National Police, such as the official Facebook page of the General Directorate of the National Police, Police Secours.

How will commitment help foster accountability? The activities of the CCEs will contribute to finding solutions to security problems, which will allow the development and implementation of an adequate security policy, favorable to the tranquility of the population.

How will commitment improve citizen participation in defining, implementing and monitoring solutions? Through the CCEs, the populations themselves participate in their own security, and provide information to the police. They are thus, in all their components, actors of their security, by their frank collaboration. The cooperation will be based on partnerships with specific groups such as shopkeepers, social workers, school officials. The results of the citizens' contributions provided during the committee meetings are taken into account.

Planning the commitment (Milestones | Expected results | Expected completion date)

1- Organize regularly monthly Police-population meetings throughout the country | People are interested in and regularly participate in ECC meetings (The NSC will gather input from the public at these meetings) | January 2023-June 2024

2- Carrying out community actions to bring the police closer to the population (cohesion sports, clean-up operations, cleaning of schools, etc.) | - Community actions are carried out. The Police contribute to the well-being of the population. - The population has confidence in the National Police. - The police provide assistance with speed to the people who request it | January 2023 - June 2024

Additional information The NSC will collect public comments during the annual review seminars held in Yamoussoukro with members of the ECCs throughout the country.

Action Plan Review

Commitment 8. Strengthen the implementation of the community-based policing starting from the Ethics Advisory Committees (EACs)

● Verifiable: Yes

● Does it have an open government lens? Yes

● Potential for results: Unclear