Implementing Community Policing in Nigeria: 12 Concise, Practical and Effective Community Policing Strategies

Community Policing is a policing system that proactively involves and engages the local communities in policing activities, from crime prevention, crime management to intelligence gathering. It is a policing paradigm that can be implemented differently in different communities, cities and nations as long as the community-centric approach is adopted in its overarching design. This flexibility of Community Policing has made its implementation difficult to comparatively capture since different nations will be doing different things all in the name of Community Policing. This factor has also made it easier in Nigeria for lip service to be paid to implementation when in fact nothing tangible happens in reality. Since the 1999 return to democratic rule; Nigerian Police has been discussing the implementation of Community Policing. Strategy after strategy documents have been produced; yet this form of policing is yet to be operationalised effectively in Nigeria. The void left by this failure has led to agitations for State Police or Local Police by many Nigerians. Meanwhile, the community perception of the police has deteriorated further in the years since 1999 and confidence in the Nigeria Police Force is at an all-time low. The strategies in this book will work effectively regardless of the structure of policing in Nigeria; so, in that sense, the book will always be relevant for policing Nigeria for decades to come.This book is deliberately written in such a way that all rank and file officers can read and understand it. It is a practical book that focuses concisely on how Community Policing can be delivered. The overwhelming focus of this book is on how the Nigerian Police can operationalise Community Policing in as quick a way as possible and with the least resources expended. The book is direct and straight to the point. My goal in this book is to provide a practical template on how Community Policing can be operationalised in Nigeria. After reading this book, the leadership of the police at all levels should be able to see some low hanging fruits of Community Policing implementation, they can adopt swiftly to improve community relations and public perception of the police. To the leadership of the Nigeria Police Force; I hope this book will spark additional creativity to see what is possible and improve the delivery of Community Policing in Nigeria for the benefit of all.