Community Policing in the Middle East and Africa: A Matter of Context?

Some Fundamentals

Many Community Policing articles, books, manuals and training sessions will, somewhere at their beginning, make reference to the origins of Community Policing dating back to Sir Robert Peel and the formation of the London Metropolitan police in 1829. While Peel’s nine Principles apply to democratic policing today as much as they did in 1829, this can have the effect of unintentionally and unconsciously, setting the scene that Community-Based Policing is a concept, brand and philosophy “invented” and exported from in the “West.” This can be reinforced and compounded by, what have been termed as, “One shoe fits all” and “Off the shelf” packages, un-boxed and then delivered with minimal consideration for “will this work here”? While there is nothing wrong with covering what can be presented as, the origins of contemporary community policing, the authors argue that it can dictate how technical assistance in this field is introduced and pursued.

The Problem with Released Jihadists

“We’re playing Russian roulette with people’s lives, letting convicted, known, radicalised jihadi criminals walk about our streets”. — Chris Phillips, former head of the UK National Counter Terrorism Security Office, The Guardian, December 1, 2019.

Europe Must Not Fall Victim to Erdoğan’s Blackmail

Turkey would apparently like to see more progress in the talks to grant it admission as a full member of the European Union…. Erdoğan would most certainly like the West overlook his massive democratic deficit, and to help Turkey secure even more dominance over the Greek islands off its coast, as well as its claims on the gas fields beneath the eastern Mediterranean.

Greece’s Migrant Crisis: “A Powder Keg Ready to Explode”

“People have seen their properties destroyed, their sheep and goats have been slaughtered, their homes broken into. A few years back, when there were 5,000 migrants on the island, things seemed bad enough. Now there’s a sense that the situation has really got out of hand.” — Nikos Trakellis, community leader in Moria, on the Greek island of Lesbos.