Iraqi Police in Security Awareness Campaign

After attending an IWPR training course in communications skills,  Iraqi police officers decided to launch a security awareness campaign within their own communities.

The 40 officers  began visiting the main bus stations in Baghdad, which are often targets for terrorist attacks.  Hussein al-Rubaie, a spokesperson for the group, said police decided to launch the campaign after they found out how important public outreach was  to their work.

“Because bus bombs sow terror in the community, we decided to involve bus drivers in helping secure the vehicles,” he said . “The IWPR workshops were very useful and taught us the importance of building strong relationships with our community."

In cooperation with the British embassy in Baghdad, IWPR has  been working on a project to improve the “soft skills” of policing – public outreach, human rights awareness and conflict resolution.

The idea for the police outreach initiative came out of  a five day trainers’ course for 20 officers in June presented by an  expert from South Africa. This was followed by six other courses led by Iraqi trainers for over 100 community police officers.