Northern Community Policing Symposium

The opening of the first Northern Division Community Policing Symposium was officiated this morning by the Acting Commissioner of Police Rusiate Tudravu where he called for an all hands on deck approach towards fighting crime.

The Symposium is being held in Savusavu and supported by the Pacific Centre for Peace Building.

In attendance are representatives of Civil Society groups, Faith-Based Organizations, Crime Prevention Committee members, and Regional Policing Partners.

A/CP Tudravu said strengthening information sharing, education, communication awareness, and advocacy were key tools in having successful community policing partnerships.

He said community policing needed an all hands on deck approach in order to be effective.

“Community Policing is in essence, a collaboration between the Police and the Community that identifies and solves community problems and that’s why you are all invited and we need to utilize all avenues, resources and use the best tools available to us to help each other to fight crime.”

He said the main purpose of the Symposium was to forge closer working relationships between Police and members of the community considering that crime had significant personal, social, and economic impacts on our communities.

The Acting Commissioner said the Fiji Police Force could not fight crime alone and was looking forward to sharing of ideas on ways of improving the Duavata Community model to suit the needs of the Northern Division.

The Symposium ends today.