Effectiveness of Community Policing in Combating Insecurity in Nigeria
Keywords:
Vigilantes, Decentralization, Crime, Insecurity, Community PolicingAbstract
Insecurity is a topical issue in every nation but prevalent in Third World countries particularly in Nigeria. The inability and ineffectiveness of the security forces to combat insecurity and rising incessant crimes and killings necessitate the need for community policing as a solution strategy. The aim of this paper is to assess the effectiveness of community policing on insecurity in Nigeria. Secondary sources of data were primarily explored for the study. Extant literature on topical issues were reviewed and the Normative Sponsor theory was adopted. From the analysis, it is evident that community policing has positively reduced crime rates in several parts of Nigeria. However, challenges such as inadequate funding, public loss of trust and confidence, inadequate manpower, selective enforcement of law syndrome, poor community relations, ‘godfatherism’, lack of visionary schemes have frustrated every effort to improve and stabilize police-public cooperation which is a pre-condition for effective community policing. The study recommended that there is need for provisions of adequate funding on community policing by the government; there is also the need to establish proper communication channel between the police and the community heads like the traditional rulers and chiefs, among others.Downloads
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