Community Policing as a Strategy for Crime Reduction in Nigeria. (A Case Study of Yola North Local Government Area of Adamawa State)

Community policing is a symbiotic and concerted effort of the police and members of the host communities with the sole aim of reducing the incidence of crime and criminal activities. Nigeria as a country embraced the concept of community-based policing to forestall crime and criminal activities since the return of democracy in 1999. This research critically scrutinizes the ideology and beliefs of community policing in the Nigerian context, with the aim of proffering solutions to the major setbacks of community policing in Nigeria. A non-probability sampling technique was employed during the studies. Self-constructed questionnaires were used to acquire data. Results revealed that the community members are in constant healthy relationship with the police but the police collaboration with the community members in terms of crime control/detection is not encouraging. The effort of the police authority in crime detection and control is commendable and the fear of crime has been declining since the initiation of community policing. Success was attributed to the constant collaboration of the police with other security agencies. The residents fully supported the concept of community policing but however, suggested that massive employment, funding security agencies, and organizing skill acquisition programs to engage the unemployed will greatly help in crime reduction in addition to the concept of community policing. The challenges faced by the security agencies include recruitment of unqualified personnel, insufficient crime-fighting equipment/patrol vehicles, inadequate remuneration of the security personnel, and lack of trust of information to the security agencies by the residents.