Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode has said the state is under- policed because currently there are about 33,000 police officers protecting a population of 20 million Lagosians.
Ambode also revealed that between 2007 and 2014, the state government spent a total of N12 billion to fight crime.
Ambode made this revelation during a dinner organised by the Lagos State Security Trust Fund (LSSTF) at Victoria Island.
He said “It is in my interest that I drive the business of making Lagos safer and it’s also in my interest that you join hands with me to succeed in this.
“Right now we have just about 33,000 people policing us and we’re about 20 million. So, if you combine other forces, the Fire Service, LASTMA and Ambulance service, it might bring the number to about 40,000 of them as against 20 million people.
“I can admit we lack the right technology. We don’t have a holistic approach to coordinate everything that we are doing and then we don’t have the security management that Lagos actually needs, so we are under -policed and we are not getting the right technology to be able to say that Lagos is secured. We must now integrate men, equipment and technology to keep Lagos safer.
“So technically, Lagos state government, the Police and other security agencies have analog technology right now, there is no interface amongst all of us. So we need to migrate to digital for improved information dissemination.”