Another effective way of controlling and preventing crime in our community is through community based policing.

It is all about both the community and the police working in collaboration, to prevent crime and create safe environment for everyone to live. This cannot be attained without the effort of the community. Police should take time and discuss concerns of the community at their various levels and share necessary information with them.

The importance of community policing cannot be over-emphasised, taking the fact of the increasing rate of crimes in our environment into consideration. Crimes like armed robbery, murder, rape, drug peddling, among others, are being shifted from the urban areas to rural areas. The increasing level of crime in rural communities could be due to the fact that the criminals are being repelled from the cities. The gradual shifting of crime from cities to rural areas is creating threat to the life of people in the  those communities. Community policing is therefore vital in curbing this unfortunate trend and the general safety of the country at large.

The Gambia Police Force is doing all in their capacity to thwart crimes in our society. They are taking proactive measures focusing on community crime prevention. They have Police Intervention Units (PIUs) throughout the country. Now they have also put the importance of community policing into consideration. Presently, they have succeeded in establishing community policing in some parts of the Greater Banjul Area. According to ASP Sulayman Secka, PRO Western Region, their target is to create an environment that will frustrate the efforts of criminals.

As each community is made up of different groups of people so are the police making effort to listen to and find out about the concerns of each community in order to move toward the right channel. This is because they are to provide an opportunity for local problems to be solved by working hand in hand with the community. To know what is going on in the community, the police should conduct survey of the community opinions in relation to crime and policing issues. This, the police will work on a closer contact with groups within the community.

Community policing is to the advantage of every one as it allows for a safe and a peaceful environment in which youths reduce anti-social and criminal behaviors. It will ensure behavioral teachings of living skills to people at risk. It will help to caution criminals, as they will be open to free identification.

This will make it difficult for them to have a hideout and allow police to develop a closer working relationship with the community. This will as well enable everyone to take responsibility. To achieve this, authority figures like the police, the alkalolu, imams, pastors in the community have an important role to play.