Community Policing Committees in Guma and Kastina-Ala Local Government Areas share their practical field experience

At a strategic meeting hosted by the Benue Network of NGOs, Community Policing Committees (CPCs) shared practical field experiences from Guma and Katsina-Ala Local Government Areas of Benue State. The engagement was held in the lead-up to the launch of the Benue People-Centered Public Safety Programme.

The discussions provided a field-level assessment of evolving security and safety trends across affected communities. Participants noted a gradual shift from predominantly kinetic responses to more preventive, non-kinetic, and community-driven approaches to safety management.

CPC members highlighted the growing relevance of early-warning and early-response mechanisms rooted in community participation. They examined how strengthened collaboration among traditional rulers, security agencies, and civil society actors has improved information flow and reduced response time in critical situations.

Reflections during the session underscored measurable progress in trust-building between communities and formal security institutions. CPC representatives also pointed to improvements in coordination between grassroots structures and official response mechanisms.

Participants emphasised the need to institutionalise grassroots intelligence-gathering and to enhance communication channels between communities and formal security structures. They stressed that sustainable public safety must remain people-centered, inclusive, rights-based, and accountable to the communities it serves.

The meeting created space to exchange lessons learned, identify operational and capacity gaps, and propose practical, actionable strategies to strengthen public safety architecture across the two local governments.

Importantly, the engagement also provided a direct interface for the Security and Rights Team of the Open Society Foundations to hear firsthand from CPC members on the implementation of their action plans. This interaction enabled a grounded review of progress, challenges, and opportunities for scaling impact under the emerging People-Centered Public Safety framework.