Last September 26-28, 2012, the Philippine National Police’ (PNP) Human Rights Affairs Office (HRAO) conducted a three-day training for police officers who comprise the PNP’s core trainers on rights-based and community-policing. Police officers from all over the country were taught how to conduct and manage practical training activities, drawing lessons from actual police scenarios.

As police officers, participants were told that for them to promote the respect for human rights, they must effectively practice human rights-based and community-policing. “To improve our officers’ community-policing skills, we saw the need to move away from the traditional classroom-type environment, go outside, enact scenarios, then discuss where we did wrong and how we may do better in real-life conditions,” said retired PNP Superintendent Gerry Dia who advised the training participants. “Then the participants are required to describe in practical terms, how they will conduct these exercises when they serve as trainers in future training activities,” he added.

In the process, the participants identified the following elements critical for the success of their follow-on training activities: advance planning and extensive communication among all interested parties, a credible program of instruction and training methodology, participant selection based on merit, and effective training management. As they may be asked to speak or discuss the subject on behalf of the PNP in other fora, the participants were provided identical sets of information materials and taught accordingly so that any one may respond to or address rights-based and community-policing issues in a manner consistent with the PNP position.

For this year, the PNP Human Rights Affairs Office with the assistance of the Hanns Seidel Foundation conducted rights-based or community-policing training for over 200 police officers which include those who comprise the core training team. “Rights-based or community-policing builds upon collective experiences, application of analytical skills, good intent and exercise of sound judgment,” said Police Chief Superintendent Nestor Fajura who heads the human rights affairs office. “Since they joined the force, police officers have been required to read up on laws, regulations and procedures but seldom have they been taught how these apply to field conditions,” adds Fajura who was the former director of the Philippine National Police Academy. At his suggestion, the training activity incorporated subjects and practical exercises to improve the participants’ critical thinking and analytical skills.