Observations and follow-up on police trainings in recognizing and dealing with child sexual abuse in Tanzania In 2013 Terre des Hommes Netherlands has organized two 5-day police training courses in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, for Regional police commanders, Regional Crime Investigators and District police officers. This on recognizing and dealing professionally with cases of child sexual abuse and exploitation, and child sex tourism, according to national and international law enforcement standards. Also representatives of the Ministry of Social Welfare and child centered NGO’s were present. In order to get an idea on the results and lessons learnt of the police training activities, the coordinator of the courses, Talinay Strehl, and Dutch police training expert, Niek Waterschoot, conducted interviews with trained police officers from different regions and with different functions. This document reflects the main observations and conclusions resulting from the interviews, in order to decide on the way forward. Observations are illustrated with quotes from participants.
1. Main observations 1.1 Content of the training
Both training weeks were concluded with the completion of (anonymous) evaluation forms about the training by all participants. Overall both trainings were evaluated very positively by the participants. Participants stated on the evaluation forms that e.g. the training increased their awareness of the problem and enhanced knowledge and skills in handling child sexual abuse cases (investigation and interviewing skills); especially the (inter)national legislation, psycho-social response to child victims, ground rules for child interviewing and interrogation of the suspect were mentioned as very useful. Moreover, some participants mentioned that the session on operating procedures was very useful.
Sara Komba (G&C Desk, Tanga, trained in November), interviewed on 15/11/2013: “I started working as a G&C officer in January 2012. I did not receive a previous training on Child Rights. In the district were I work we receive on average 4 to 5 cases of child sexual abuse monthly. In this training, I learned how to build rapport with a child, how to prepare a place to interview a child and that we shouldn’t force a child to talk when she or he is not ready. When I am back at work I will teach Community Police and train my colleagues on how to handle cases of child sexual abuse.”
Modesta Masatu (previously G&C Desk Mwanza, now trainer at the police academy in Dar es Salaam, trained in March), interviewed on 19/11/2013: “The attitude of the police in Mwanza has changed after the trainings. When child abuse is a reported to the police, they will hand over the case to the specialized unit of the G&C Desk who will do the investigation and interviewing. The G&C Desk officers continue with the follow up of the case till the end of the report. When needed the police officer will refer the victim to Social Welfare. If the victim needs a doctor, the police officer will go with him/her to the hospital. All this can provide evidence that can be used in the case.”
Betrida Minga (G&C Desk, Kagera, trained in November), interviewed on 15/11/2013: “This is the first time in my career that I receive a course in Child Rights and interviewing of children. I have only done the basic police course in Moshi, but the subject of child rights is not in there. I therefore think this training is really useful and it will help me a lot in my work at the G&C Desk. We receive quite a high numbers of cases of children who are sexually abused, on average we receive 8 to 10 cases per month. It is also nice to discuss this issue with officers from other regions, because this way we can exchange experiences and learn from each other. I really thank you for this training and hope you will organize more of these kind of trainings.“ Prisca Kombi, (G&C Desk, Kinondoni, Dar es Salaam, trained in March), interviewed on 19/11/2013: “I really think everything in the course was useful to me. We have learnt how to talk with children. I have learnt many things that I still use. Even when students from the police academy come here, I give them a copy of the training material. I have for example learnt where to bring the kids when they come here. I know who to cooperate with, like with NGOs and Social Welfare. Before I would keep the victims in the police station, but we don’t have an adequate space for them to stay. The cooperation with other stakeholders improved, especially those who provide shelter for children and take care of victims. Also the part on interviewing has helped me. I know now that kids will be afraid when I am wearing my uniform during the interview, so I don’t wear it anymore when I am working at the Desk. I also let the kids play, so I can gain their trust and they are less afraid. Moreover, I have learnt that also boys can be victim of sexual abuse. Before I wasn’t aware of that. Another example on how I have improved is that nowadays, when a child comes to the station and reports rape, the victim is directly send to me. Then I write a case report and go with the child to the hospital. If I wouldn’t do that, the parents of the child might pay the doctor so he says that it wasn’t rape. After this the case will be brought to court. Cases of child abuse are filed separately in the police station.”
The session that was best rated is the session on child friendly interviewing techniques. This session seemed to be most relevant for participants from all different groups. Investigation techniques and psycho-social response were also rated high.
Modesta Masatu (previously G&C Desk Mwanza, now trainer at the police academy in Dar es Salaam, trained in March), interviewed on 19/11/2013: “The interviewing and interrogation techniques were very useful. In my trainings to the officers I always include this and give them guidelines on interviewing. The tricks that we learned were very useful. For example if a child doesn’t want to talk about what has happened, I tell the officer to stop the interview for a while and play with the child instead, give him some food or a drink and take the child to a separate room. When I was teaching the tips and tricks from the TDH training, the officers were happy. But when it concerns the suspect, it is hard sometimes, because he doesn’t want to speak. In the past we would have beaten the suspects, so they speak. But now we know that that will cause problems in court. So we now try to use the tricks of the training.”
Police officers identify a need for specialized training courses, such as this training concerning children. Police officers in general receive only very general training at the police academy and therefore they identify a need for specialized training activities. Child protection isn’t part of the police curriculum1.
One of the main recommendations of the participants was to repeat this training for other police officers, also including district crime investigators, and stakeholders like medical personnel, lawyers, public prosecutors, service providers etc. The main bottleneck in child sexual abuse cases for police officers is the lack of cooperation with other stakeholders like Social Welfare. It was even suggested to include religious leaders in the training as they have the power to change attitudes.
Modesta Masatu (previously G&C Desk Mwanza, now trainer at the police academy in Dar es Salaam, trained in March), interviewed on 19/11/2013: “It was a good choice to include the police commanders in the training. They are the highest rank in the region and directly get orders from the IGP. So if the police commander is aware on what should be done, he will also help for advice and legal steps to follow. The RPC in Mwanza was very helpful and cooperative in giving the trainings to the officers. His support to child abuse cases really improved after the training. It was also good that you have included local trainers in the training as they need to be involved in these issues.”
1
UNICEF is working on a basic course on child protection that will be included in the police curriculum (TdH has
given input).
Inviting both high ranking officers and Gender and Children desk officers, as well as other stakeholders such as Social Welfare, lawyers and NGO’s resulted in increased coordination and support between the different people involved in child abuse cases. They learn problems, functions and responsibilities of each other and how to find solutions together.
Christina Musyani (police headquarter, trainer of G&C Desk, trained in March), interviewed on 12/11/2013: “Before the training most regional police commanders were not aware that G&C Desk officers are dealing with GBV and children. Because different police ranks were involved in the training, we were able to improve cooperation between regional commanders and ourselves. They take us more serious now.”
Training content should be adapted to local context in which Tanzania police work. This wasn’t always the case during the sessions in the first training (March 11-15), for example the toolkit used in the session on investigation techniques or the video on child interviewing. Therefore the second training was adapted more to the context of the Tanzanian police.
1.2 External influencing factors on results
Rotation within the police force is high. This can have a negative effect on the results of the training as police stations in which we have trained officers loose their trained staff and therefore the knowledge and skills from the training. This was the case in Mtwara police station: the RPC who was trained there in March was transferred to another region and the G&C Desk officer was on maternity leave. No one else in the police station seemed to know about the training. However, rotation of police staff can also have a positive effect when the trained officers transmit their knowledge and skills from the training to their successors. This way the results of the training have a wider reach. This was the case in Mwanza. When the trained G&C Desk officer in Mwanza, Modesta Masatu, was moved to the police academy in Dar es Salaam, she trained other G&C Desk officers in Mwanza who could take over her duties and give trainings themselves on handling child abuse cases.
Under-reporting due to local and cultural context in which the police officers operate. Informal settling of disputes is common in Tanzania. Also in child abuse cases people often prefer to use informal ways of settling the case instead of going to the police. Reasons are lack of trust in police, lack of awareness or knowledge about the role of the police, shame, fear, poverty, little infrastructure, and superstitious believes.
Fatuma Mtarimbo (police headquarter, trainer of G&C Desk, trained in March), interviewed on 12/11/2013: “The biggest challenge in the G&C Desks is a cultural one: it is against our culture to send your husband to court and they are often the perpetrators of violence. We have many traditions and believes that cause child sexual abuse. “
Frida Boniface (G&C Desk, Lindi, trained in March), interviewed on 18/11/2013: In this district little cases of sexual child abuse are reported. Since the training there has been only 1 case of rape of a child. The case is still being investigated. People know about the existence of the G&C Desk but they just don’t report. People in these places keep child abuse in secrecy. They treat it as a problem of the community and don’t report to the police as people fear a conflict. Only when the perpetrator is someone from outside the community, they will file a case. But when the perpetrator is someone from within the community, the victim will not report the case.
Personality and status of the participant. During and after the training it was emphasized that participants need to pass on the knowledge to their colleagues, in their daily work and through trainings. During evaluations of the training, the participants showed their intention to do this. However it is questionable whether they are able or willing to do this when back at work. The ability to bring the knowledge from the training into practice and share it with colleagues very much seems to depend on the personality of the participant and his/her status within the police station.
Frida Boniface (G&C Desk, Lindi, trained in March), interviewed on 18/11/2013: Frida Boniface didn’t seem to have been able to pass on the knowledge to her colleagues and bring it into practice herself. When we visited her 8 months after the training in her police station in Lindi she didn’t seem to have improved a lot in handling child abuse cases. Other police officers in the station had never heard about the training. Frida seemed to be a shy and passive officer who didn’t dare to speak out to her colleagues. This could have been a reason for her not having proactively shared the knowledge. The RPC George Mwakajinga in the Lindi region, who also had been trained, however said that he does train his subordinates every month during short training sessions and also includes parts of our training session. Whether this was true or not was difficult to judge for us, but we didn’t get the impression that police at the G&C Desk were aware of the training content.
Modesta Masatu (previously G&C Desk Mwanza, now trainer at the police academy in Dar es Salaam, trained in March), interviewed on 19/11/2013: The case of Modesta shows the contrary. Modesta who has been a teacher in the past is a talkative woman with a strong personality. “After the Terre des Hommes training I went back to Mwanza with the RPC and I became the head of the G&C Desk. We have 6 districts in the region and we established 6 G&C Desks of which we trained 6 investigators in child abuse and gender cases. The first step we did was to shift the supervision of the department from the Officer Commander to the Criminal Investigation Officer. The second step was to create registers in which criminal cases were separated from cases in which only advice was needed (for example from Social Welfare). Then we provided a training on gender and child abuse to all the officers in the region. I have trained the officers in Mwanza district. And I assigned other G&C Desk Officers to train the other districts. I have mainly used the materials from the TDH training on interviewing child witnesses and interrogating the suspect.”
Infrastructure and personnel in the police station. Some police stations don’t have enough police officers, resulting in gender and children desk officers doing other police tasks instead of working at the desk. Some stations lack adequate resources and budget, interviewing rooms, transportation to visit remote communities, computers, investigation equipment, etc. , which makes it difficult to carry out their tasks and duties in a satisfactory way.
Modesta Masatu (previously G&C Desk Mwanza, now trainer at the police academy in Dar es Salaam, trained in March), interviewed on 19/11/2013: “To improve the G&C Desks we need better facilities, constructing separate buildings for the Desks, with 4 rooms and a cell. In Mwanza many children escape their homes because of abuse and start living in the streets. When they come to the police station they don’t have a place where they can stay. That’s why we need a facility in the station, like a shelter for the children.”
Hasani I. Lujendo (G&C Desk, Mtwara, not a participant in the training), interviewed on 18/11/2013: Often G&C Desk officers are given other duties, general police jobs, and when there is a child abuse case they are not in the office. We lack vehicles, so we cannot go to the communities whenever a case takes place in the rural areas. Our working area is very wide, about 70 km.
Anitha Samwel (G&C Desk, Tabora, trained in November), interviewed on 15/11/2013: I am working in the G&C Desk since 2010. During this training I have learnt how to interview a child victim of sexual abuse and how to collect evidence. The G&C Desks however should be improved in terms of facilities, equipment and office space.
2. Ideas for follow up
To jointly develop an advanced training manual for police officers handing children's cases with UNICEF, incorporating and building on the training being delivered by Terre des Hommes. A particular focus will be on interviewing skills and developing and maintaining a string network with other stakeholders.
To explore a joint 8-day Training of Trainers for police and NGOs who will cascade the advanced training together with UNICEF. Where possible, trainers who have shown potential and have participated in previous TOTs should be selected.
Terre des Hommes will work on a leaflet/card/factsheet (10 golden rules) to go along with the advanced training which officers can have to hand as they work on the Desks.
3. Other remarks
In it’s programmes TdH should focus more on awareness raising within the communities on child sexual abuse and reporting to the police. The relationship between police and the community should be improved. If children and parents don’t know where and how to report cases of child abuse and/or feel afraid to do so and/or don’t see the benefits of going to the police, there will be no cases reported at the gender and children desks.
Communities have little trust in police and handle cases often within the community or family. In order to improve the relationship between police and community and gain trust, police should be more involved in community policing. In the training more attention should be paid to community policing. This will also increase the relationship between police and communities.
Modesta Masatu (previously G&C Desk Mwanza, now trainer at the police academy in Dar es Salaam, trained in March), interviewed on 19/11/2013: “In Mwanza there are 1089 family members of police officers. We gave also workshops to them, as they don’t understand children’s issues. Sometimes police officers or their families can even be the abusers of children or they have contact with the abusers and can identify the abuse in an early stage. This training was sponsored by Kivulini Foundation; they are activists of change. When we started to train the family of the police they reacted negative, but after the training they understood why it is important. For example one women said to me ‘In the past we didn’t report to the police because the police themselves were the abusers’. This is changing now.”
Incorporation of child protection modules in training curriculum of police academy. UNICEF is working with the Police Academy and the Police HQ (Training and GCD Units) to incorporate child protection modules in the Police Academy training curriculum. Terre des Hommes has given feedback on the modules, but not sure whether modules were adapted on basis of our feedback (see minutes Coordination meeting GCD 28 January 2014).
Improve on infrastructure in the police station. UNICEF is working with the police HQ on a list of items that should be provided by police HQ to each G&C Desk (see minutes Coordination meeting GCD 28 January 2014).