Community Policing
The Community Policing Program or Community Police Festivals (CPFs) utilize the medium of sports to increase awareness about community policing among the local people and to boost positive interaction between local police agencies and the general public that they serve. These events present a unique opportunity to local police members to interact with the community enhancing the spirit of teamwork and generating goodwill.
The Festivals are jointly organized by BCCP and the US Embassy, Dhaka. These festivals are designed to support the ongoing Community Policing program jointly run by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), The Asia Foundation (TAF), a local NGO called Light House and the Manob Kalyan Parishad (MKP) along with the International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP) in Bangladesh.
Under the program, a series of activities have taken place in Rajshahi division. The Superintendent of Police hosted the community policing festivals in the different districts. The participants in these events were students and teachers from 16 schools of the district including girls’ schools and Madrashas. These schools were selected from communities where local Community Policing Forums are being conducted successfully. A total of 160 students, 150 distinguished guests and 40 Community Policing Forum members participated in each event. Guests also included high officials from the Civil Administration and the Police Administration as well as other respected members of the community.
Each festival includes organizing an exhibition cricket match open to the public and played by mixed teams of local police, local cricketers, students from participating schools and the star cricketers. The mixed teams further reinforced the concept of cooperation to achieve common goals. The festivals conclude with a short cultural performance highlighting Community BasedPolicing. The festival highlighted the messages - 'The police are the people, the people are the police' and 'We will live together as a community, we will work together with tolerance and peace, we will build a golden Bangladesh'.