Community Police Officers like Mohammad Roslan and Stephen Jones are making great strides towards building a positive relationship between the expat community and the cops who keep us safe

Lt Colonel HH Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan – Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Interior and head of the Abu Dhabi Police – first launched the Community Police Project in 2003 and since that time the programme has seen huge success.

“Abu Dhabi is a unique place with over 150 nationalities but the history of community policing begins before the dawn of independence and the UAE itself – we’re just continuing the steps that have already been taken, building the walls to the foundation that has already been laid,” says Community Police Warrant Officer Mohammad Roslan.

How so? By bringing some of the very best community police in the world to Abu Dhabi to share best practices and act as the bridging point between the community and the police department. With 30 years of experience apiece, the team of four officers from Singapore plus three from Northern Ireland are all hugely experienced and have seen plenty of action in the field.

Community Police Warrant Officer Stephen Jones is another example – he was named United Kingdom Community Police Officer of the Year in 1998 and awarded the Queen’s Police Medal on the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2002.

“Community policing is the golden thread that runs through all the police services whether that’s traffic service, CID or investigations,” says Jones.

“The Community Police Department (CPD) specialises in reaching out to the community. We can take our time and visit schools, social groups, embassies, businesses – it’s our job to speak and deal and communicate and assess with the international expat community.”

Thanks to their diversity, the CPD team is able to reach a wide range of nationalities – those from Singapore deal mainly with expats from Asian countries like the Philippines, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Indonesia and Malaysia and those from the UK with expats from European and English speaking countries. They complement Arabic speaking officers who already do the same job.

How do these unique, essential officers spend their day? In a word, diplomatically.

7.30 am: Jones and Roslan arrive at the office to discuss their plans for the day. This morning, they’re visiting two schools. “Different levels [of students] require different information to be given to them,” says Roslan. “With the younger children we’ll talk more about stranger danger, road safety, fire safety and such but with the older students, we’ll talk more about topics like social responsibility and other peer group issues.”

Both officers agree that building trust is essential to the process and that with teenagers they often begin by showing their audience that they are only human, a fact that surprises some kids.

11.00 am: Back in the office, the officers debrief and discuss how the presentations went. “Word is going around so we’re being invited to more and more places,” says Jones. “We’re actually having a hard time keeping up.”

Engagements have included talks to parent associations at schools, social clubs for people of various nationalities and business people plus liaising with other government social support departments.

1.00pm: After a friendly lunch with their colleagues – who have welcomed the new additions from abroad and made them feel welcome, the officers say – it’s off to the Community Policing and Police Science Institute to join the officer training.

“We’re involved with discussing local knowledge, environmental scanning and ways of simply making better relationships with the community,” says Jones. “These are professional officers so we wouldn’t say we’re there to teach them but to impart our knowledge, advice and guidance.”

2.30 pm: Technically the work day is over, but the officers are often called to duty in the evenings and on the weekends as well, attending networking functions, manning their stand in Marina Mall or – one of their favourite tasks – walking the neighbourhoods of the city, meeting people and presenting a positive presence in the community.

“We do problem solving more on a proactive basis which is why we do a lot of foot patrols so we can observe and take our time and make the necessary reports. Essentially we are all community police,” says Roslan.

During their time in Abu Dhabi, they’ve been confronted with many of the same issues they faced as response policemen, from directing traffic in emergency situations to guiding a child through a sudden asthma attack to reporting crimes that have been brought to their attention and bringing those issues to the relevant authorities for investigation.

Final thoughts: While one major function of the CPD is building relationships with the community, both of these veteran officers are policemen first and foremost.

“Community policing isn’t just public relations,” says Jones. “Although we’re trying to make inroads in the community, we’re still police officers and we’re here to enforce the law if anybody breaks it.”

Laura Fulton

‘The Community Police Department is very much about delivery, solving problems and raising awareness about the work the police are doing, so there’s more to it than just talking – it’s about policing as well’
– Officer Stephen Jones