ABSTRACT
Police-community engagement in Mogadishu's districts varies according to clan dynamics, personalities and security issues. Mogadishu's experience raises general questions about the connection between technology and police-community relations in fragile Southern cities: can information and communications technology (ICT) help to facilitate trust and communication between police and residents in societies with low literacy rates but high access to mobiles? What aspects of ICT help residents to manage their everyday security? This chapter explores the possibilities for generalising from Mogadishu's experience by looking at the results of a text alert system introduced into New Hargeisa, a relatively safe district in Somaliland's capital, Hargeisa. One of the strategies donors use to change police-community relations in cities such as Hargeisa and Mogadishu involves the creation of model police stations. On 19 August 2015, the Somaliland Ministry of Interior launched a text alert community-police engagement programme at a small police station in the Macalin Haaruun district of New Hargeisa.
