Pubdate: Wed, 27 Mar 2002 Source: Richmond Review, The (CN BC) Copyright: 2002 Richmond Public Library Contact: http://www.richmondreview.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/704 Author: Martin van den Hemel COMMUNITY POLICING GOES GLOBAL Law enforcement officials and politicians from more than a dozen Central-American nations were in Richmond last week to learn about community policing. This was just the latest sign that Richmond's grassroots policing program is garnering international respect as a model for others to follow. The program puts police officers in closer contact with neighbourhood residents and encourages them to search out and solve problems at their roots. Officials from Guatemala, Grenada, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Paraguay, Suriname, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Haiti, Mexico, Peru, Bahamas, Barbados, Antigua and Jamaica attended several days of seminars last week, learning about how the local community policing program was established and its successes. The participants are part of the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission, which meets twice a year and discusses all aspects of the illicit drug problem. Richmond's community policing program has also caught the attention of the officer in charge of the RCMP's international training program, which is contracted by international agencies to help Third World countries develop. As a result, Richmond's finest may be asked to go to Eastern Europe to talk about the local program and how to establish one just like it. RCMP Cpl. Davis Wendell said the intent behind the trip is to facilitate workshops and to teach the application of community policing in urban centres. A major issue in some lesser developed countries is the lack of trust for the police and that's something that needs to be overcome, he said. The recent national and international attention on community policing has been a huge feather in the cap for Richmond, he said. - --- MAP posted-by: Alex