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COMMUNITY POLICING AND INSECURITY IN RIVERS STATE (2015-2019)
Abstract:
The main goal of the Nigeria Police Force is to protect life and property of its citizens but the recent trend of insecurity in Rivers State shows the inability of the Nigeria Police Force in performing these essential functions. These issues can be attributed to inadequate manpower, poor understanding of the environment they are posted to fight insecurity in Rivers State. This issue has created the need for community policing in order to reduce insecurity in Rivers State. This prompted the study to examine the prospect of community policing as a panacea to the problem of insecurity in Rivers State. Therefore, the study developed the following research questions: What is the role of community policing in reducing insecurity in various communities? What is the core principle of community policing in reducing insecurity? What are the challenges of community policing in reducing insecurity in Rivers State? The study adopted the broken windows theory by James Wilson and George Kelling as its framework of analysis. A self-designed structured questionnaire was used to collect data from respondents, while purposive and simple random sampling techniques were employed to select three (3) communities out of two hundred and thirty-four (234) and three (3) local government areas out of twenty-three (23) in Rivers State, with a total sample size of three hundred (300), while two hundred and eighty (280) questionnaires were retrieved. Mean and rank order statistical methods were used to analyse the data. The study revealed that the major role of community policing is to protect life and property, covering and curbing the nooks and cronies in the communities, rapid response to security threats to prevent the breakdown of law and order. The core values of community policing are transparency and openness in their policing function, demonstrate commitment at all times to deliver best quality services. The challenges facing community policing in Rivers State are lack of trust between the police, vigilante groups and the members of the communities, poor public image of the police. The study thus recommends that there is a need for the Nigerian Police to strengthen their cooperation with the members of the various communities in Rivers State. This cooperation will endear them to the people instead of the present mutual suspicion and distrust which alienate people from them. In other words, it will improve community relations with the police, as well as increase information sharing, intelligence, crime detection and prevention.
Keywords:
Community Policing, Nigeria Police, Police, Policing.