Under the auspices of Minister of State for Internal Affairs H. E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani, , Director General of Public Security Staff Major General. Saad Bin Jassim Al Khulaifi inaugurated the community policing seminar titled "Strategy of Ministry of Interior in Establishing the Community Policing Concept" on Tuesday, 30/3/2010 morning at conference hall of Police Training Institute (PTI) in Doha. Legal Adviser to His Excellency Minister of State for Internal Affairs Major General Dr. Abdullah Yusuf Al Mal, Secretary General of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs Noora Al Malky, Chairman of Central Municipal Council Nasser Abdullah Al Kaabi, directors of different departments in the Ministry of Interior and a large number of guests attended the inauguration ceremony of the 2 days seminar which has been organized by the Researches and Studies Section at PTI. Director of Police Training Institute Brig. Muhammed Hasan Al Sai who delivered the welcome speech said "This seminar has been organized as a part of the attempt to disseminate the culture of national and security awareness among the community members and various community establishments and to build the bridge of trust and cooperation between the police and public in all fields of security works". The two days seminar with the participation of ministry of interior and other ministries, establishments and members of the civil society mainly will discuss 17 papers in four sessions focusing on four themes of the subject such as security, religious, social and media themes, said the PTI director explaining the details of the seminar. After that, chairman of the steering committee of community policing Brig. Rashid Rashid Shaheen Al Atheeq delivered the word of the committee in which he praised the PTI management for organization of this seminar among the activities of the Cultural Season of the Institute. He then stressed that the concept of security has been improved in recent decades at an accelerated pace and became based primarily on the philosophy of community partnership, which means the contribution of all components of the society to the activities and programs for crime prevention and fight and its dissemination. The concept of community policing has been applied in many developed countries since the sixties of the last century, the steering committee chairperson mentioned. He also added that the community policing basically aims at strengthening the relationship existing between the community and police in the framework of joint responsibility between two parties to face the security challenges and crime prevention, as it will be a shift from the reaction level of the police to the launch of an initiative to prevent them. The ministry of interior was keen on mainstreaming the community partnership in cooperation with key partners in this project, which include all ministries, authorities and national establishments and the civil society institutions, through assessing the views of those bodies in the preparation of the strategy of community policing, which was aligned with the permanent constitution of the country and the Qatar National Vision 2030 that call for the consolidation of the principle of community partnership and approaches of the Interior Ministry in this regard, added Brig. Rashid Shaheen. He then continued, "As an emphasize to this, the ministry of interior adopted the concept of community policing, which comes as a response to the general thrust towards strengthening the community's role in crime prevention and reduction of its spreading. The philosophy of community policing strategy stands on consolidating the joint responsibility between all members of society, its institutions, and the police for the prevention of crimes, depending on the promotion of religious values and traditions of the society. We can brief the vision of the strategy that is to make the State of Qatar a safe and stable society, which's pillars are religious and ethical values and inherited customs and traditions and the mission of strategy also emphasizes on supporting and promoting such participation for a secured society dominated by prosperity and stability Brig. Rashid Shaheen then explained the objectives of community policing as consolidating the principles of human rights, developing the concept of community policing in society, improving the image of police among the public and the development of a security sense, empowering the family, public and private institutions and civil society to perform their crime prevention roles and crimes dissemination in addition to the development of mechanisms of voluntary work and friends of police in society. Then, he also referred to the references of the strategy, which are Islamic law, values, customs and traditions of society, the Permanent Constitution of the State of Qatar and its National Vision 2030 and all laws and regulations in the national legislation. After that, Director General of Public Security Staff Major General. Saad Bin Jassim Al-Khalifa honored the 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize winners of research contest titled "The role of the public in maintaining security and crime prevention" which was organized by the Research and Studies Section in the PTI and the jury of the research contest which consisted of Col. Dr. Mohamed Abdullah alluded Marri, Assistant Director of Police Training Institute, Dr. Salah Al Mannai, professor at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Qatar University, and Professor. Ghada Ibrahim Al-Maliki from the Office of HE the Minister of State for Internal Affairs . The jury of the first research award received 56 researches from various segments of society. After the honoring ceremony, Director of Total Quality Department Lt. Col. Hazza Thirhab Al Hajeri chaired the first session, in which Dr. Sadoon Rasheed Al Hiyali from Qatar Foundation to Combating Human Trafficking presented the first paper titled "Qatar Foundation for Combating Human Trafficking and Community Policing - Roles and responsibilities - prospects for cooperation and coordination in the future". The second paper on the topic "The role of higher education in establishing and activating the concept of community policing" from the Higher Education Authority under the Ministry of Education and Higher Education was presented by Professor Hassa Yousuf Al Ali. Dr. Hassa suggested to include a two years study program for community policing in Qatar community college and to form an administrative chair for community policing in the ministry of interior which comprises of sections for research, community support, statistics and analysis and support services. The third paper was presented by Chairman of the Central Municipal Council H.E. Nasser Abdullah Al Kaabi on the topic "The positive and expected role of Central Municipal Council in establishing the concept of community police". The paper recommended to add some expatriates residing in the country to the cadres of community policing in order to facilitate and ease the communication with different communities. The last paper of the first session was for the ministry of interior, which was presented by Lt. Col. Abdullah Khalifa Al Muftah, Director of Public Relations Department. The paper on the topic "Community policing – Partnership between security and society" discussed the improvement of the concept of community policing and its applications in the foreign and Arab countries. The paper also elaborately discussed about the experience of community policing in the State of Qatar The second session of the seminar was chaired by the Director of Public Relations Department in the Ministry of Interior Lt. Col. Abdullah Khalifa Al Muftah. The first paper of this session on the topic "Media and media persons in the service of making the police and community more closer" was presented by Dr. Mahmoud Qalandar from Media and Information Section at Faculty of Arts in Qatar University, while the second paper of this session was for Qatar Foundation for Information on the title "The media's role in supporting the strategy of the Ministry of the Interior to consolidate the concepts of community policing" and was presented by Dr. Youssef Al-Ibrahim. Dr. Ibraheem recommended in his paper to execute a professional security awareness campaign in all medias and to utilize the modern methods of communication such as internet and blogging sites to spread the concept of community policing. The third paper on the topic "Role of Islamic propagation in consolidating the community policing concept" was presented by Dr. Hamadi Basyouni Khamees from Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs in which he recommended on the necessity of deepening the partnership between security agencies and propagation department in order to achieve the strategy of comprehensive security. The last paper on the topic "Rooting the concept of community policing" in the second session of the first day of the seminar was presented by Lt. Col. Hazza Al Hajeri, Director of Total Quality Department in the Ministry of Interior. The Director of Total Quality Department recommended to inform various medias about their roles in strengthening the concepts of community policing among the public and civil society institutions, as well as the leading role for Police Training Institute in conducting awareness courses about community policing the art of dealing with the public, as well as training of councils of community policing. The paper also recommended on the need to cooperate with other sectors of society, ministries in the state and private establishments and institutions, communities, volunteer centers and through participation in different social meetings and occasions. The seminar aims at studying the cotemporary security effects of community policing work, identifying its different aspects, creating an appropriate environment to serious work, maintaining the country's resources, improving the civilized behavior that suits with our customs and Islamic principles, supporting the social work among the police and spreading that culture among its members and other community members to reduce the ratio of the crimes. Ministries of Interior, Education and Higher Education and Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, Qatar University, Central Municipal Council, National Commission for Human Rights, Qatar News Agency, Qatar Foundation for Information, Qatar Olympic Committee, Qatar Foundation for Combating the Human Trafficking and Supreme Council for Family Affairs etc are taking part in this two days seminar. ILQ NEWS

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