ADF STAFF
The African Union Transition Mission in Somalia is prioritizing community policing techniques as it prepares Somali security forces to assume full control of the country when the mission exits in December 2024.
The mission, known by its acronym ATMIS, supports “police-public partnerships” as a way of building resilience against radicalization and violent extremism through community policing. The policy validates a realization that community policing is an effective tool against extremism.
“I want you to use these skills as a yardstick when you go out to fight al-Shabaab militants and other criminals because community policing is all about inclusivity, cohesion and working together to combat crime,” ATMIS Police Commissioner Hillary Sao Kanu told members of the Somali Police Force (SPF) after training at General Kahiye Police Academy in Mogadishu in January.
The training of trainers course was part of a series ATMIS organized to equip the SPF to conduct effective community policing. The work has continued through the year. On May 20, ATMIS officials met with SPF Deputy Community Policing Director Capt. Faliye Farxaan in Mogadishu to plan a new community policing conference hall.
About a month later, Kano lauded continuing efforts in Jubaland State to train and mentor Somali officers. “We have delivered extensive training in areas like fingerprinting, community policing and traffic management, and we are looking forward to providing more training to our Somali counterparts,” she said in a news release.
Violent extremist groups often make money through trafficking and by taxing illicit enterprises in exchange for security. In short, crime propels and strengthens extremism. A June 2024 Wilson Center blog post by Meressa Kahsu Dessu, senior researcher for the Institute for Security Studies in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, said these conditions make having effective policing in peace support missions essential.
However, AU missions often lack police components, he wrote. The lack of this “soft approach” can result in “less effective human rights observation, local community engagement, local police capacity building, support in crime investigations, and tracking of criminal syndicates.”
Military components help missions weaken extremists’ fighting capability, but police officers are essential in preserving hard-won gains by building relationships with local populations, Meressa wrote.
Community policing uses five elements to win over locals and fend off extremism, according to Dr. Neil Jarman, research fellow in conflict studies at Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland. The elements, now employed by the Police Service of Northern Ireland, were adapted from a model developed by the South African Police Service after apartheid collapsed, Jarman wrote for the Community Relations Council.
Problem-solving, empowerment, partnership, service delivery and accountability shift police from a reactive posture toward “discussion and dialogue” in and among communities. These principles empower people and groups to address problems themselves and work with various agencies, Jarman wrote.
“Community members are best positioned to recognize suspicious activities in their communities — including radicalization and extremism activities — and to inform the police officers promptly,” Meressa wrote for the Wilson Center. “Through such stronger community policing partnerships, the police can proactively detect suspicious activities, solve crime and violence problems, and build communities’ resilience to violent extremism.”
The United Nations Security Council recognized the value of community policing in peace missions in a November 2014 resolution. The council noted “that impartial, responsive, accountable, community-oriented police institutions with well-trained personnel can help to counter violent extremism, including through building trust and dialogue between state authorities and communities.”
Often, however, missions do not have proper resources allocated to police components. Such has been the case with the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), which continues to target Boko Haram and Islamic State group extremists in the Lake Chad Basin. A 2023 report for the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs indicated that although task force troops have successfully cleared areas and restored stability, the mission’s lack of police capability has hurt its ability to protect and hold cleared areas to sustain stability operations.
This forces “the military to remain present in some areas once security has been restored to conduct policing tasks and ensure the safe entry and performance of stabilization and humanitarian activities,” the report states. “However, the military does not have sufficient capacity to operate at this level as it causes the exhaustion of its already limited resources that could be used in further offensive operations elsewhere.”
The AU and its member states need to prioritize community-oriented policing in peace operations, Meressa wrote. Stronger community policing partnerships will help officers detect suspicious behavior early and “build communities’ resilience to violent extremism.”