How to make community policing work

The introduction of community policing in the country by President Muhammadu Buhari has been received with mixed feelings. The idea is popular at the moment because of the security challenges facing the country. But, the model being envisaged by the government does not inspire much confidence. Experts suggest how to make the initiative work. Assistant Editor LEKE SALAUDEEN reports

The worsening security situation in the country has prompted President Muhammadu Buhari to approve community policing, which Nigerians have been clamouring for. The government approved the sum of N13.3 billion for the take-off of the scheme under the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu. The implementation committee has been inaugurated in all states and the recruitment of operatives of the scheme has started.

Security experts believe community policing was long overdue because the country is grossly under policed. The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has only 400,000 staff to police 200 million people and a territory of 923, 768 km. Besides, the police are faced with several problems which include corruption, insufficient education and training, inadequate manpower and equipment, poor conditions of service, poor public perception of the average policeman.

Due to the poor perception of the police, Nigerians are usually reluctant to provide information and any form of support or cooperation to the police. Recognising the need to provide a more democratic, community-oriented policing approach for the people of Nigeria, former President Olusegun Obasanjo launched the Nigeria Policing Project on April 27, 2004 to introduce Community Policing into selected pilot divisions. The model adopted in the pilot divisions has successfully integrated many policing concepts into a fully functioning of community policing, the policing excellence model, neighbourhood policing, intelligence-led policing, conflict prevention and student-centred problem-solving training approaches.

Former Inspector General of Police, Ogbonna Onovo said the central objective of community policing is to provide an atmosphere in which the police and law-abiding citizens can work in partnership to solve problems; share resources; prevent crime; promote inter-agency collaboration; bring offenders to justice; reduce conflict; and improve the overall quality of community life. Consequently, community policing is in everyone’s interest as it enables a peaceful secure and investment-friendly-environment that promotes the development and improve livelihoods, he said

The former police chief said the NPF personnel who were trained in community policing proactively act beyond simple crime-fighting and law enforcement. He said they rely on the community, decentralise to the neighbourhood level to be more accessible, maintain contact and cooperation with their communities, engage in tactics to target specific problems identified by the whole community, work in partnership with other public and private organisations and continually evaluate and adapt their strategies.

Onovo said community enables intelligence-led policing because of the increased level of trust between partners. He emphasised that community policing will take care of crimes at the grassroots where people could easily identify those engaged in criminal activities.

Explaining how the NPF community policing functions, a retired police officer, Aliyu Suleiman said community policing is based upon the following key principles: It relies upon the partnership between the police and their communities; it requires police to be committed to high-quality service delivery; and it emphasises that appropriate skills, attitudes and behaviours police officers must develop and maintain to achieve high quality service delivery, through student-centred problem- solving approach to training, mentoring and retraining. He explained further that community policing requires the police to involve their communities in mapping out their strategies. It also entails the adoption of a proactive problem-solving approach.

Suleiman said community policing had been introduced at a pilot level in the following 18 states: Enugu, Anambra, Imo, Benue, Kogi, Kano, Kaduna, Jigawa, Bauchi, Katsina, Borno, Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Ondo, Cross River, Edo and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

He said without exception, all of the pilot divisions have achieved many successes as a result of the introduction of community policing. Moreover, officers from the pilot Divisions have actively trained personnel from neighbouring divisions to promulgate best practices.

Explaining the rationale for community policing, IGP Adamu said that the recent upsurge in crimes across the states of the Federation and Abuja has prompted the urgent need to implement community policing. He said recent incidents of armed banditry, kidnapping and armed robbery most especially in Kaduna, Niger, Katsina and Zamfara States have reinforced the need for community policing across the country.

He said: “Accordingly, as conceptualised, formulated, and approved by the Federal Government, the current effort will be citizen-centred and driven by members of each community. He added that the plan will involve the setting up of Community Policing Committees (CPCs) at the ward, local government, and state levels including the Federal Capital Territory. The committees are to identify credible and suitable citizens from across each locality for appointment as special constables who will serve as community policing officers.

“The committees are also expected to identify the security challenges peculiar to their communities and partner with the local police in formulating plans that will mitigate the challenges. The community policing are to deal with and resolve low-level security issues without necessarily resorting to police stations unless the issue is of serious legal and security consequences and require police intervention. The idea is to improve the capacity of communities to develop solutions to local security problems working closely with their local police.”

The IGP said that when community police become fully operational, the citizens will be in control of their security with the guidance of the police and the community policing committees, while the Nigeria Police will then concentrate on the management of violent and other highly organised crimes with a view to pro-actively responding to them in a manner that engenders public confidence, trust and public satisfaction in police service delivery.

There is no gainsaying the fact that community policing will strengthen the police capacity in intelligence gathering and crime control at the grass root. It offers a myriad of opportunities depending on how it is structured and applied. The crucial issue is how it can maintain relations and promote community action against crime and conflict.

However, a security expert, Alex Okoroafor said for the success of community policing, the authorities must take into consideration the numerous identities that exist within the community. According to him, it is not enough for its members to be drawn from the communities, but their perspective towards carrying out their operations is key to building community partnership and promoting durable peace.

Okoroafor believes community policing will take care of crimes at the grassroots where people could easily identify those engaged in criminal activities. He said: “Winning support of community residents will aid security. Community policing actors must step in to build public trust through fair policing, professionalism and proper conduct without bias. To cultivate public trust, community policing operatives must take a cue from the perception of people towards existing formal security structures.

“The policy framework must be designed to align and collaborate with existing community-based groups to understand community needs. The partnership will improve responses to adopt in addressing issues related to crime and conflict. The familiarity of community policing actors with residents will be valuable in mobilising community groups towards suing for peace in the face of conflict or working together to tackle criminality at the community level.”

A sociologist, Dr Lanre Ikuteyijo has identified some challenges that may affect the successful implementation of community policing in Nigeria. He said laudable as the goals and objectives of community policing might be, its implementation in Nigeria is beclouded with certain concerns

Ikuteyijo of the Department of Sociology, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, said the historical and present-day realities of community mistrust in law enforcement in Nigeria may affect the effectiveness of community policing if not well addressed. He said: “There is a long –standing antagonistic relationship between the police and community members which may adversely affect the success of the scheme.

“Another factor that may pose a challenge to effective community policing in Nigeria is the concept of ‘godfatherism’. This is the funding and abetting of vices and shielding of connected criminals from justice by government agents and highly placed officials entrusted with the power and authority to investigate and prosecute such vices. Many powerful politicians, who constitute most of the membership of these bodies, often use their position in society to shield criminals who are loyal to their cause. Most of these miscreants, who are used by the politicians during electioneering campaigns and as bodyguards are often shielded from the arm of the law by these political demagogues.

“Corruption is another canker, which threatens the success of community policing in Nigeria. Police officers who had benefitted from the status quo of traditional policing may find it difficult to adjust to the radical diversion from the traditional style of policing. This implies that for community policing to be successful, there is a need for a massive orientation of the rank and file of the Nigeria Police Force.”

He emphasised that the image of police is essential to the effectiveness of community policing in Nigeria. Members of the community need to be reassured of the sincerity of purpose on the part of the police. The police as a body will have to sensitise their rank and file to ensure that they live above board.

The university don suggests that there should be frequent refresher training for officers and community leaders. On the part of the police, the recruitment and selection of community police officers should be done with greater caution to minimise the appointment of criminals as law enforcement agents.

He said the issue of finance is another challenge facing the success of community policing in Nigeria. Community policing requires much greater funding than traditional policing since it entails that all officers must be trained and retained, more modern crime-fighting equipment be procured and the morale of officers be boosted with pay rise and other incentives, he added.

But, Adamu has assured that all seeming challenges would be taken care of. He said: “Community policing is a strategy. It is not a new police structure that is being created, but it is within the police, we re-strategised to bring in community-based initiatives. The idea and what we are implementing is that the community should take responsibility for policing. The implementation has gone far. So far, we have inaugurated state community policing advisory committee in all the states. And that advisory committee comprises the community leaders, leaders of faith-based organisations, representatives of market women, representatives of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, Students Union etc.

“At the local government level, we also have the same strategy represented by the same group of community leaders. At the local government level again, we have a committee, which will have the same people from the ward and villages. This committee is the one that would help us identify within the wards and the villages their own citizens and natives who are able-bodied. We would select them and train them as community policing officers and send them back to their communities. We have reached this stage already. Now we are at the stage of recruitment.

“They would deliberate on these problems and see how they can solve the problem without necessarily bringing it to the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) because it is a community-based initiative to deal with community issues. The N13.3 billion released by the Federal Government is for implementation of the project. We are going to do town hall sensitisation. We are also doing training for community police officers. We are going to buy all the equipment then the process goes on this year, next year, until everything is established.”