RESEARCH PROJECT ON COMMUNITY POLICING

PROJECT TOPIC: Community policing, exploring the police and Community relationship for crime control.

CASE STUDY: Tarauni Local government area of kano state.

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study

The failure of government programmes for the control of crime informed private citizens playing a variety of roles that is making a decisive difference in the prevention, detection and prosecution of crime around the world. Private Citizens represent an underutilized source of assistance in crime control and social decay management. While law abiding citizens are willing and potentially capable of assisting the police, they lack direction and experience. However, with proper supervision and guidance by the police, citizens can contribute to reduction of crime and betterment of society. 

Community policing is in hand with systematic relationship between the police and the entire people in the community. Police roles and functions are not simply law enforcement but also include tackling a huge range of community problems. 

The movement from traditional policing to community policing is a universal phenomenon and the Nigeria police cannot be an exception to this. Indeed, community policing as a philosophy and practice is a veritable vehicle for police reforms (Okiro, 2007). The Nigeria police in 2004, adopted community policing as a practical approach to police reforms. The stage was indeed set for a clear departure from traditional policing, that was reactive and incident based, to a problem solving oriented policing that is proactive with the community as the important part of policing objectives (Abdulrahaman, 2007).

Community policing is a paradigm shift that seeks to focus on constructive engagement with people who are the end users of the police service and renegotiate the agreement between the people and the police therefore making the community co-producers of justice and a quality police force. 

The most recent attempt made by the Nigeria police force to improve its performance was the introduction of community policing programme in 2004. This was part of the Nigerian Police force’s effort to change policing to a new and professional policing capable of ensuring and maintaining proper security of lives and property in Nigeria.

 Community oriented policing is a proactive measure that promotes curbing criminal act.Conclusively, the police involvement in community affairs is another strong strategy that allows the police to display themselves as both private citizens and State agents of social control. Community policing under this programme or strategy presents the police as servants of the society who, should in a reasonable manner, enforce law and order and ensure public compliance with policies. Extant studies also attest that the involvement of police in community affairs has actually yielded fruitful results. For instance, Quinney (1974) affirmed that when the community collaborates with police personnel in maintaining social order, it helps the legal system also to be increasingly used in criminal justice administration. The police are viable instrument for building an inclusive and organized community policing in Nigeria. Police involvement in community affairs facilitates rapid and timely control of persistence rebellion, whether in outright political processes or behaviour that otherwise, violates the rules of the society Community policing also helps the State policing actors to exercise its repressive force on the people in order to achieve compliance with the law (see also Kelly & Clark, 2003). This technique can be employed only in a physically and socially disorganised community. In more disorganised areas, some experts pointed out, police use aggressive tactics to reduce crime and ‘take back the streets’ before building relations with community leaders (Siegel, 2008 citing Nolan, Conti & McDevitt, 2004).

1.2 A statement of the problem.

The public perception in relation to lack of public confidence and the corresponding cultural gap has assumed a level whereby members of community are not willing to give useful information to the police in the task of preventing and controlling crime. This situation has been identified as one of the main problems in the implementation of various policing policies and programmes and this actually led to the call for the introduction of community policing.Hills (2014) argued that the promotion of police and community partnership had been carried out by a range of politicians, practitioners, and criminal justice scholars who firmly believe in facilitating effective policing through partnership strategy. This kind of partnership strategy tends to serve as a means to build trust between the local people and the police. Hills (2014) stated that most of the countries of Africa that have engaged with community partnership approach to policing have not been as successful as planned. At the center of both individual and institutional programmes there should be ethical policing as a matter of ideology. By the way, social problems should be perceived as issues of collective responsibility by the police and public in terms of identification, priority and problem solving (Hills, 2008). As part of demonstration of the tendency to ensure robust relationship between the police and community, various regimes of the Federal Government of Nigeria have stated the readiness to promote ideals of community policing in the state

.1.3 Research Questions.

These are some of the questions the study is designed to answer:

i) what is the prevalence of community policing on crime reduction in Tarauni local government

ii) what kind of relationship between the police and community in Tarauni local government?

iii) what are the efforts taken by the community to ensure better community policing in Tarauni local government?

1.4 Objectives of the Study.

The objective of this study was to find out the effect of community policing on crime prevention in Nigeria. The specific objectives are:

i) To identify the prevalence of community policing on crime reduction in Tarauni local government.

ii) To identify the relationship between the police and community for crime control in Tarauni local government.

iii) To inquire the efforts taken by the members of the community to ensure better community policing in Tarauni local government.

1.5 The significance of the study.

The significance of the study was to observe the effect of community policing on crime prevention in Tarauni local government.

1.6 Scope of the Study.

This study covered respondents like the Nigeria Police, and the community members in Tarauni local government.

1.7 Limitation of the study.

Major problems encountered were time constraints, validity and reliability of the sources or materials.

1.8 Definitions of Terms.

The following terms were used in the course of this study:

Community policing: the system of allocating police officers to particular areas so that they become familiar with the local inhabitants.

Crime Prevention:  is the attempt to reduce and deter crime and criminals. It is applied specifically to efforts made by governments to reduce crime, enforce the law, and maintain criminal justice.

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