The newly formed Global Counter-Terrorism Forum (GCTF), an international organization of 37 countries, has already organized two conferences on community policing in the past year alone.  Several U.S. and European agencies have prescribed community policing principles in their projects. And international organizations led by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have developed guidelines for member states looking to adopt community policing to address violent extremism and radicalization that leads to terrorism. 

Critics argue that community policing is an inappropriate response because it is too "soft." Some even argue that law enforcement-driven strategies are inadequate and that violent extremism and terrorism should be addressed with military intervention.  The news in Nigeria makes the case even more compelling:  citizens have begun to take the law into their own hands and started to organize as militias to protect themselves from further kidnappings.  There are also undoubtedly private citizens looking for the girls, armed to the teeth. 

While any parent can understand such a response, citizen militias are a destabilizing development in this ordeal. The reaction also demonstrates that authorities have lost legitimacy and the hope of cooperation from citizens, help that ultimately could create a more secure environment.  One of the consequences also might be that the government will have a harder time recruiting police officers than Boko Haram has enlisting fighters.

The kidnappings that have drawn the attention of so many around the world should force us to reflect on what can be done to provide support for Nigeria not only in the short term to rescue the girls, but also in the longer-term to establish mechanisms that might prevent such violations, or at least render these abuses much more risky for the perpetrators.

Community-oriented policing can make a significant difference to decrease the danger posed by Boko Haram and other threats to the safety and security of the Nigerian people. The strength of these militant groups rests in part on the lack of partnership between law enforcement agencies such as police or border security units and the public. 

This absence of a connection means not only that citizens don’t get the quality protection they need but also that there are no established communication channels through which the public can share information with the police.  Information from the public -- about threats or criminal activity,  or from victims or witnesses – is a fundamental asset of effective policing.  Security results from a close partnership between the public and the police tasked with protecting them. Each is a co-guarantor of security; one cannot work effectively without the other. 

This interdependence is the crux of community policing, also sometimes called community-oriented policing.  If such partnerships were in place in Nigeria today, it might be much more difficult for 276 girls to be moved across the country undetected, more difficult to find avenues to traffic them and more difficult to send videotapes of the kidnapped girls.  Each task requires manpower, and people talk.  Community-oriented police all around the world rely on this kind of information to protect their citizens. 

In Nigeria and elsewhere, when such communication channels exist and police establish a solid track record of service, residents who have information are more likely to provide it with the belief that the police will actually take action. The reports that citizens of Chibok knew that Boko Haram was on its way several hours prior to their arrival but that they were not able to get enough help illustrates the weakness of community connections with the police.  Partnerships between schools and the police also are key in a community-oriented approach.

So this might be a good time to discuss community-oriented policing with the Nigerian government, and to make the case that kidnapping and trafficking are criminal activities that should be addressed as crimes, using a law enforcement response rather than one in which the police risk becoming militarized, especially if international assistance isn’t very carefully structured.

In some areas of  Nigeria, police are working to establish a community policing ethos, but those instances occur mainly as a result of efforts by individual officers committed to the security of their communities.  They cannot be successful in the face of groups like Boko Haram unless the public and their government, through their police and relevant ministries, are more thoroughly connected through partnerships, understandings and defined communication channels.  Such a system would need to be instituted primarily by the country’s own civilian authorities and citizens, though the international community can help with advice, training and support. 

The police can play a significant role in preventing and containing threats and in protecting the population, if they have the information they need. And that information can only come from the community whose eyes and ears make or break the effectiveness of police.   In turn, the police needs to ensure that the information shared by the public is utilized responsibly and without abuse of power.

Indeed, the police can greatly exacerbate radicalization and the use of violent means if practices are repressive or violate the social contract that should commit police as a legitimate provider of public security.  So the focus must be on partnerships and communication channels and a culture of public service.

Nadia Gerspacher is the director of Security Sector Education in USIP’s Academy for International Conflict Management and Peacebuilding.