The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, has said that the recent upsurge in crimes across states of the federation and Abuja has prompted the urgent need to implement community policing.
The police boss made this known at the Strategic Police Managers Meeting in Abuja on Friday, which was the first strategic management meeting to be held by the Nigeria Police this year, a statement issued on Friday by Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba said.
The IGP noted that recent incidents of armed banditry, kidnapping and armed robbery most especially in Kaduna, Niger, Kogi, Katsina and Zamfara States have prompted the need for the full and speedy roll-out of the Community Policing strategy across the country.
“Accordingly, as conceptualized, formulated, and approved by the Government, the current effort will be citizen-centered and driven by members of each community,” he said.
Adamu 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, when inaugurated, are to identify credible and suitable citizens from across each locality for appointment as Special Constables who will serve as Community Policing Officers (CPOs), the statement said.
“The Committees are also expected to identify the security challenges peculiar to their communities and partner with the local police in formulating plans that would mitigate the challenges. The Community Policing Officers 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,” he said.
The IGP said that when community police becomes fully operational, the citizens would be in control of their security with the guidance of the Police and the Community Policing Committees, while the Nigeria Police would then concentrate on the management of violent and other highly organized crimes with a view to pro-actively responding to them in a manner that engender public confidence, trust, and public satisfaction in police service delivery.
“Faced with increasingly sophisticated and enterprising criminal threats, our Community Policing approach recognises that the Police alone, as a law enforcement agency, does not have the exclusive capacity to solely manage the security threats. Thus, a multi-agency and citizens-driven approach remains the most potent strategy to deal with the current trends of crime.
“The success of the community policing initiative in Nigeria, like in other policing climes, depends largely on the extent to which strategic police managers, particularly, State Commissioners of Police, Area Commanders and Divisional Police Officers understand its concept and practice. This conference shall therefore, dwell extensively on exposing senior police officers to the concept and the implementation plan of the Community Policing Strategy,” he added.
Innocent Odoh, Abuja
