Youth Municipal Council

Understanding and Improving Youth-Police Relations

A research project aimed to identify factors that contributed to or detracted from healthy relationships between police and young people in Grand Yoff, Dakar.

Youth-police relations in the city of Dakar are strained. Mistrust, past grievances, police corruption and antagonistic behaviours on all sides have exacerbated the issue over decades. A group of young people representing the municipality of the arrondisement of Grand Yoff in Dakar wanted to examine these relations and develop a roadmap for solutions.

They conducted interviews with young people, police and community elders to explore causes and consequences of mistrust. The group not only received support from Young Cities, in terms of funding and capacity building, but also received direct guidance from the Ville de Dakar and its municipal stakeholders.