Success stories: Trust building for the police among youth and the path to prevent crime

By Alba Cela,
Project Officer, House of Europe
Despite the fact that national surveys show that police forces are not among those less trusted by the public opinion, when it comes to the trust that youth has in the police the right assumption is that there is more skepticism, less information and less willingness for young people to approach police even when they need to.
Prejudices and unfounded fears characterize some of the perceptions of young people towards police officers and in a climate where school violence has been on the rise the practice of trust building between these two groups is vital for having healthy communities.
It is with this context in mind that House of Europe, one of the most active organizations in promoting dialogue with youth in the context of European integration, has designed and is implementing an new project in the town of Berat, called symbolically ‘State Police, MY Police’. The project is supported by the SACP Programme, Swedish Support for the Ministry of Interior and Albanian police for Community Policing. The Programme has been offering valuable financial and technical assistance towards law enforcement in Albania through targeting issue of trust building, respect for human rights and working with young people and local communities in any projects across the country.
The initiative is oriented towards bringing police officers in classrooms for semi-structured conversations that revolve around familiar and hot topics: drugs, violence, traffic rules and driving problems, etc. bringing into the conversation the services provided by the police through police officers which offer a tranquil and collaborative ay of communication, often female officers towards which trust and positive perceptions are proven to be higher, gradually imprints a change in the perception of the high schools students and hopefully will make them more likely to approach and seek police help in case of need or in case of reporting a crime.
The project has brought together a variety of stakeholders such as the department of education with the school directors and teachers that are contributing naturally to the discussions, the police officers that bringing their expertise and start creating a relationship with students as well as local civil society. The Kristal center of Berat, a grassroots local hub of projects concentrating on human rights protection and youth is coordinating the activities on the ground.
So far the project has highlighted several important facts. First and foremost there is a real and pronounced need for more opportunities for students and young people in general to interact with the police in a safe and learning environment. The young students need to know the officers beyond the strict law enforcing figure, beyond authoritative people and towards more collaborative assisting people they can approach. Their persistent questions asked during these sessions, their courageous jokes and their attention towards the presentations given by the officers is proof to that.
Second there is willingness of the education sector to offer their resources and coordination for such contact points to happen and that is quite commendable. The school environment in general needs to be more interactive and provide more real life conversations which have a different value that goes beyond traditional academic text books.
Finally this approach so far supported by foreign assistance should be extended towards more local initiatives supported by domestic actors in order to guarantee sustainability and outreach of the results. Communicating with the next generation, instilling in them a basic level of respect and trust for the police forces and equipping them with the right information that guarantees their aces to the services and protection offered by the police can do much more to prevent crime and increase safety than all other efforts.