The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu says public distrust is the major challenge confronting policing in Nigeria.
According to Vanguard, the police boss stated this Wednesday at an event organised by the House Committee on monitoring and implementation of the legislative agenda chaired by Hon. Henry Nwawuba.
The IGP was represented by a Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Adeleye Olusola Oyebade.
He said that this public distrust necessitated the introduction of community policing to bridge the gap.
“Now a major problem is lack of confidence between the police and members of the public.
“That’s why the present administration was able to come up with community policing that all of us are trying to see how it will work,” the IGP said.
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He recalled how policemen used to be highly respected in colonial times, noting that the police hierarchy was working to bring that back.
“Police of today we know where we are coming from.
“If you go back to the roots, you’ll find out from the colonial era what police used to be when, if you don’t want your child to do anything, you tell them ‘I will call the police for you’.
“There’s a lot of distrust and disconnect between the police and the public.
“So the community policing as it is we’re trying to bring into focus, to bridge that gap, it’s going to be community-driven and problem-solving.”
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He emphasised that the public distrust of the police would soon be a thing of the past.
“We want to involve the community, the locals, to be part of policing of the area.
“They know the culture, the language, topography and that’s why we’re having the community policing initiative to train the locals to join us.
“So that we don’t prevent proactive policing, rather than being reactive.
“So all of these are being done, training of the personnel, bringing a lot of technology platform to track down the heinous crimes we are facing today in terms of kidnapping and I know the House Committee has done a lot in giving us the support.”
The Herald can report that public distrust of the police was one of the factors that led to last month’s #EndSARS protests.