Regional Policing and Crime Reduction in Nigeria: a Case Study of Amotekun
CHAPTER ONE
Objectives of the Study
The objective of this study is to examine regional policing and crime reduction in Nigeria by using Amotekun as a case study. However, the specific objectives are:
- To investigate the level of acceptance of regional policing by the people in the community
- To determine the challenges facing regional policing in Nigeria
- To examine the prevalence of regional policing in Nigeria
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEWS
Concept of Regional Policing
Regional Policing encompasses a variety of philosophical and practical approaches and is still evolving rapidly.. Mastrofski (2006) sees Regional Policing … as an attempt to link the police more closely to the community in ‘partnership’ arrangements, joint activities to co-produce services and desired outcomes, giving the community a greater say in what the police do, or simply engaging with each other to produce a greater sense of police-community compatibility. Trojanowicz and Buequeroux (1990) brought in a philosophical dimension to the meaning of Regional Policing. According to him it is a new philosophy of policing, which emphasizes the working partnership between police officers and citizens in creative ways in order to solve community problems relating to crime, fear of crime, and neighborhood disorders. The opinion of Mastrofski and Trojanowicz et al was shared by Brown (1989) when he describes Regional Policing as security management approach that relies heavily on the articulation of policing values that incorporate citizen involvement in matters that directly affect the safety and quality of neighborhood life. The common line of argument among the researchers is that the effectiveness in the way through which Regional Policing is implemented in any given community will largely determine the outcomes whether it will be successful or not (Young & Tinsley, 1998).
Flynn, 2019) asserts that the success of the outcome of the partnership between the police and community largely lies on the amount of trust that exists in their relations. Without trust between police and citizens, effective policing is impossible. Farrell, 1988) notes that Regional Policing partnerships develop information exchange whereby the community provides the police with information about problem conditions and locations, crime concerns, active criminals, and stolen property, and in return police provide the community with information pertaining to community fears, problems, tactical information and advice about preventing and reducing crime.
With many definitions given for Regional Policing, one key question still remains: What elements of policing does Regional Policing really encompass .Scholars have identified some key elements required for a successful Regional Policing. to include organizational structure (Cordner (2007); training (Mastrofski, 2006); Management (Fridell, 2019); appropriate leadership (Skogan, 2005). supervised and managed (Cordner, 2019), information sharing (Trojanowicz et al, 1990).
Young and Tinsley, (1998) noted that the best approach to Regional Policing is when the latter is seen as also problem solving – an interactive process, involving police and communities identifying crime problems and developing appropriate solutions according to Cordner, (2007) problem solving aspect of Regional Policing relies more on preventing crime than traditional methods, through deterring offenders, protecting likely victims and making crime locations less conducive to identified problems. Bucqueroux, (2007) notes that problem solving are measured by asking the question ‘is the problem solved?’ rather than focusing on traditional methods, such as, the number of arrests.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
The study employed a descriptive survey design. A Descriptive statistics which include percentage distribution was calculated based on the respondent’s responses for each item on the administered instrument for the survey (Osuala, 2001). The design is suitable for this study because the study will ascertain the opinions of the residents on the impact of Regional Policing in the crime reduction.
Study Population
The study population for this research involves the total number of people living within the delimitation of the study, in this case Oyo, Ekiti and Ondo States. Due to the broad nature of the population understudy the researcher further reduced the focus of the study to the residents of Ibadan South-East , Ibadan, Oyo state.
Sampling Design
A sample is a small group of individuals obtained from an entire group or accessible population having a common observable characteristic (Mugenda and Mugenda, 1999). Sampling is therefore a process of selecting a sample from a population to become the basis for predicting the prevalence of an unknown piece of information, situation or outcome regarding the population (Kumar, 2005). Simple random sampling was employed to select a representative sample from residents. Key informants were chosen purposively (2 from each group) among the provincial administration, civil society and the religious sector. According to Mugenda and Mugenda (1999), in purposive sampling, cases are handpicked because they are informative or they possess the required characteristics. The investigator relies on his or her expert judgment to select units that are representative or typical of the population.
Sampling Procedure
A total of fifty police personnel were purposively drawn from -police stations in Ibadan south-east Local Government Area of Oyo state. They consist of forty-four male and six females with age range of 20 and 60 years from both junior and senior cadres. 44.0% of the respondents have less than 3 years experience in the police force, while 46.0% of the respondents have spent between 6 years and above It also show that 20.0% of our respondents have been in police service between 11 and 15 years while 6.0% of the respondents have spent between 16 and 20 years as those who have been in service above 20 years constitute 42% of all the respondents. Indeed, the implication of this finding is that 48% of our respondents in the study area have been in service for no less than 16 years. The demographic characteristics of the respondent show great heterogeneous with regards to age, gender and work experience, however, they are homogenous with regards to the variable of interest to the researcher-police personnel posted to police station in the study area.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALYSIS
Descriptive statistics was used to measure the centrality of distribution-mean, median and averages, while multiple regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses.
Question 1:
The first research question was designed to assess if the respondents were aware of Regional Policing in their community.
The above table indicates that none of the respondents was of the view that Regional Policing was not existent, denoting that there has been (varying) awareness about Regional Policing as an approach to crime control by the Nigeria Police. 2.0% of the respondent felt that awareness about community by police authorities was very inadequate while 6.0% of the respondents viewed that it was inadequate.
CHAPTER FIVE
DISCUSSION, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATION
Discussions
This study examined the the Regional Policing And Crime Reduction In Nigeria: A Case Study Of Amotekun, The study was carried out Ibadan south-east Local Government Area of Oyo State, Nigeria. Six research questionnaires Research question one assessed the level of awareness of the respondents to Regional Policing in Ibadan south-east revealed that majority of the respondents (92.0%) aware of the existence of Regional Policing. The finding corroborates the view of DFID-Nigeria’s Security, Justice and Growth Programme (2000) that observed that there had been increased effort by Nigeria Police authorities to promote Regional Policing in Nigeria especially by creating awareness about the relevance of this security approach to crime control. This finding is encouraging from Trojanowicz and Bucqueroux (1990) point of view, they contends that information is very important to the success of Regional Policing, Similarly, Reno et al (1998) assert that the successful implementation of Regional Policing largely depends on better understanding of Regional Policing among police personnel, so that they can support the policy and make it a success.
The second research question which assesses the perception of police personnel regarding the adequacy of training in promoting Regional Policing practice the training on public order management ranked least among the trainings conducted by the police. This outcome is worrisome because the importance of training to the success of Regional Policing cannot be over-emphasized. This relevance of training to effective Regional Policing is also espoused in Zhao et al (1995) who surveyed police executives in the United States regarding their attitudes to toward Regional Policing training and education as well as impediments to Regional Policing implementation. They found that police departments viewed the training and education as facilitators to Regional Policing implementation.
The third research question examined whether Regional Policing has improved the relationship between the police and public in the study area. The result showed that the police have more collaboration with religious cooperation religious bodies more than other civil societies in the community. The implication of this finding is that police have most robust relationship with religious bodies, which underscores the relevance of religious institutions to Regional Policing implementation and crime control. This finding corroborates previous findings of McNamara & Tempenis (1999) who observe the involvement of religious institutions in Regional Policing as a means of curbing growing security threats globally his finding is very promising given that in the past relationship between police and community in Nigeria have been considered by many as unfriendly such that the religious bodies view police personnel as those without any iota of credibility, integrity, and lack commitment to duties (Alemika, 2003).
Research question four which was designed to obtain information regarding the impact of Regional Policing in controlling different types of crimes show that the police perceive that due to the activities of Regional Policing there is drastic reduction in criminal activities (robbery, kidnapping, assaults, arson, political violence e.t.c area.. this outcome with the finding of Wickoff and Skogan (1994) who report that Regional Policing has huge positive effects on police staff attitudes towards their work. This brought into bear satisfaction of Regional Policing as an anti-corruption tool, task-identity and work autonomy. However, the fact emanating from such is the well reported police corruption and political factionalism have permeated Regional Policing thereby undermining its impact on crime reduction and public security.
The fifth and sixth research questions show that in combination, the existence of improved working conditions among police personnel and proper implementation of Regional Policing have a significant impact in their capacity to control crime. The implication of this result is that Regional Policing can significantly predict effective crime control while improved working conditions cannot significantly predict effective crime control by police. This finding supported previous researches (Uruena (2003), Uzendo (2006) and Neild, (2007) who reported in their study that improving working conditions and positive practices motivated the police officers in their study for greater output.
Recommendations
In furtherance of our quest to contribute to the body of knowledge, we make following recommendations:
- Police academy training needs to expand beyond arrest procedures to include building skills like community organizing.
- In order for police to achieve better rapport with the community, various commands, area offices and, zonal offices and stations need to become and operate more like open systems. This will have huge implications on the organization of Nigeria Police. The structure of police departments needs to be more decentralized to allow better deployment in the community and more effective use of officers and response to citizens and in building the network relations with citizens. It is important to have a more flat rank structure; this will allow officers to continue good performance without necessarily aspiring for command positions, and it will improve the quality of police personnel in the field. The use of more civilians in auxiliary and liaison functions will generate closer ties with the community as well as free officers to do police work;
- Internal communications need to be exchanged at the lower level to break the relatively rigid chain of command and to improve the flow of information. Police supervision should enhance interaction between all levels (officer-supervisor and officer-community) in order to expand the spans of responsibility of officers. Officers should have greater discretion to empower them in their decision-making and to encourage more flexibility in non law enforcement situations. This will make police work far more efficient and will enhance performance on the part of officers who are expected to do more in a position of trust.
- Police deployment should be proactive, preventive and community-oriented, in addition to (not instead of) reactive policing. The worst mistake that Regional Policing proponents can make is by advocating that it, as proactive policing, completely replaces traditional reactive policing. The two need to be there side by side as there are incidents which require immediate reaction. Yet it is imperative upon police to be involved in long-term preventive activities along with other service agencies and citizens alike. Recruitment should emphasize higher educational levels and seek people-oriented, service/mediation-centered officers. To date many of the officers still join the force having in mind adventure and the (sense of power because of the) use of force. A differential recruitment policy will change this image and will enhance the self-selection process to improve future police personnel. It will also improve the likelihood of police to become a respected occupation and also enhance the likelihood that it will be equalized among other social services.
- Training should expand on interpersonal skills and become more community-oriented. This is particularly relevant as a relatively small proportion of the officer’s training is dedicated to such issues. Officers’ performance evaluation should emphasize measurable community-oriented activities (contacts, coordination, assistance) and the reward structure should acknowledge community oriented efforts, offer tangible salary raises and intangible recognition for performing accordingly. Finally, it is important to have Regional Policing adopted force-wide and not relegated to special units;
- Inter-agency cooperation should encourage increased scope and level of interaction between various agency levels (not only between department heads). Agencies (police and other social services) should develop a better understanding as to what constitutes overall community needs and how they can, by working together, improve their response to those needs. Agencies should have systematic information about the availability of resources and create a climate that rewards cross-jurisdictional cooperation and minimizes friction. It is imperative that agencies provide incentives for cooperation at a comprehensive level; and
The most important component of Regional Policing is the reliance on the community itself. Infact, improving police and (coordination among) other services to the community could go a long way to build cordial relationship between police and public if nothing changes in the community itself. Social and ethnic tensions that result in group crime or immigration frictions that result in individual crime are but a few examples to the extent that even when services are available (and that is not be taken for granted) the underlying problems in the community continue to generate the conditions that breed criminal behavior. In order to better handle community issues it is essential to increase the knowledge we have about the community. There needs to be better mapping of crime as well as profiling of community populations, networks, problems, needs and available resources.
References
- Adams, C.F. (1994). Fighting crime by building moral communities. Christian Century Year, 111(27): 894-896. October.
- Adisa, J. (1999). “A new Nigerian police image: Its role in the next millennium” A Paper delivered at a seminar organized for Assistant Inspectors –General and Commissioners of Police by the Nigeria Police Force at the International Conference Centre Abuja, October 19-20.
- Alderson, J.C. (1979). Policing freedom: A commentary on the dilemmas of policing in Western democracies. Eastover, Plymouth: Macdonalds & Evans.
- Alemika E.E.O. (1993). Colonialism, State and policing in Nigeria. Crime, Law and Social Change (20) 187-219.
- Alemika E.E.O. (1999). Police-community relations in Nigeria: What went wrong? In I. Chukwuma and I. Ifowodo (eds.), Policing a Democracy. Lagos: Centre for Law Enforcement Education.
- Alemika, E.E.O. (2003). Federalism and the police in Nigeria. In A.T. Gana and S.G. Egwu (eds.). Federalism in Africa: The imperative of democratic development (Vol. 2). New Jersey: Africa World Press.
- Alemika, E.E.O. and Chukwuma, I. (2000). Police-community violence in Nigeria. Lagos: Centre for Law Enforcement Education.
- Allen-Bond, M. (1984). Policing Japan. Law and Order 32(5): 46-52.
- Arase, S.E. and Iwuofor, I.P.O. (eds.). (2007). Policing Nigeria in the 21st century. Ibadan: Spectrum Books.