USAID Community Oriented Policing Activity 3rd Quarter Report, Jul-Sep 2016

COPA works with civil society organizations, schools, at-risk youth, faith-based, youth, and private sector groups, in partnership with police and local government leaders, to identify and address problems related to crime, safety, security, and livability in targeted neighborhoods. The project's objective is to develop the capacity of police, government, and community stakeholders to communicate more effectively and work constructively together to solve problems of mutual concern. During Quarter 3 of the second year of implementation, COPA efforts resulted in seven major achievements. A first-of-its-kind meeting was facilitated between the newly assigned Commander of the 7th Arrondissement of Police and the Assistant District Chief (Beni Makada) of Tangier with the Sania Core Team. The meeting was held at the Arrondissement Station, where Core Team members were introduced to the newly assigned Arrondissement Commander and the Assistant District Chief. Members described recent security issues in the community related to an increase in drug sales, public drunkenness, and armed assaults. COPA grantees delivered two workshops on drug use prevention and reduction to 150 residents from target communities in Tangier and Tetouan. Police, Ministry of Health officials, and representatives from neighborhood associations that provide counseling and other services to addicts served as expert panelists in the workshops. COPA created the Core Team in Bendibane and is now supporting four Core Teams that are partnered with their corresponding Prefectures of Police in Tangier and Tetouan. COPA delivered three SARA (Scanning, Analysis, Response, and Assessment) training workshops for Core Teams. By the end of the reporting period, all Core Teams had arrived at the Response phase, which comprises action planning for police and community response on identified and prioritized problems. In each case, the responsible Arrondissement commander is a member of the Core Team and participates in the drafting and validation of action plans. Through COPA's grant to UNFM/BM, six community meetings were held to mobilize residents around priorities established by Core Teams. The meetings also served to reinforce links between smaller neighborhood associations and the grantees. COPA facilitated drafting of violence and crime prevention action plans by Core Teams in Sania and Jamaa Mezouak. These plans will be presented by Core Teams to the corresponding Prefectures of police in Tangier and Tetouan. COPA reached cooperation agreements with Career Center/USAID and American Language Centers (ALC). These agreements will facilitate access by COPA partners to services offered by each as well as access by Career Center and ALC into target communities. COPA's progress against selected key indicators during the quarter and during Year 2 of the project is as follows: 23 community meetings to discuss security and safety issues were held, with a total of 47 meetings to date. A total of 756 participants were involved in COPA programming and activities, with 94 association representatives and community leaders trained. The Core Team creation process was implemented in Bendibane, with a new Core Team established and supported by COPA. The Core Team creation process involved outreach to residents of the Berouaqa and Roudani neighborhoods (Bendibane area) of Tangier to establish a new Core Team. COPA provided an orientation to committee members on the basic concepts of community-oriented policing, emphasizing each citizen's responsibility to work with authorities on safety and security issues. The support committee distributed candidate forms to neighborhood residents, and completed applications were reviewed in plenary. Suitable candidates were identified and interviewed, with final decisions on Core Team membership taking demographic factors into consideration.