By Paul Williams
The Inspector-General of Police, Olatunji Rilwan Disu, has said the Nigeria Police Force cannot effectively discharge its duties without the cooperation and support of members of the public.
The IGP, who was speaking during a live television programme to commemorate the International Day of Police Cooperation, stressed the importance of trust and collaboration between the police and the communities they serve.
Disu described policing as a communal responsibility, noting that although police officers were employed and paid by the government to maintain law and order, members of the public also had important roles to play in ensuring effective policing.
He said, “Policing is a communal thing. We are just the ones paid by the government to put on the uniform and do the job 24 hours of the day. All of us are policemen and policewomen.
“The police can never succeed without the cooperation of everybody. We have various theories of policing, and all of them, at the end of the day, still border on cooperation—intelligence policing and policing by consent.
“Policing by consent has about three or four Es: educating, enlightenment and interaction. The father of modern policing said the community are the police, and the police are the community.”
Disu explained that effective policing could not be achieved without the consent and cooperation of the people, adding that the relationship between the police and the public must be built on mutual trust.
“It simply means you cannot police the people without the consent of the people. The consent of the people is the cooperation we are talking about. Are the people cooperating enough with the police?” he asked.
The IGP, however, said there had been improvements in the relationship between the police and members of the public, particularly due to the prevailing security situation in the country.
He said, “The people are beginning to cooperate better with the police. The people are beginning to see the importance of police officers and even other security agencies, especially with the security situation that we have in the country.
“People are getting more friendly with the police. People want to cooperate with the police. I know we have a lot of problems with the community. I cannot come here and tell you 100 per cent that the situation is as it should be.
“A lot of people do not have trust in the police. A lot of police officers are doing what they are not supposed to do. We do not have the expected trust that we should have. And without trust, without accountability, we cannot police. The trust between the community and the police is very, very low.”
The IGP said upon assuming office, he made a commitment to tackle impunity within the police and among members of the public.
“When I came, I said we are going to end, or we are going to try our best to end, impunity. Impunity on the part of the police and, at the same time, impunity on the part of the people.
“Policemen are supposed to do what they are supposed to do. We know when a policeman goes off the track, and that is why we created a lot of devices to be able to check it,” he stated.
Disu also highlighted some of the mechanisms established by the police to enable members of the public report misconduct by officers.
He said the Monitoring Unit, X-Squad and the Complaint Response Unit were available to receive complaints from members of the public concerning police misconduct.
“We now have the Monitoring Unit. We have the X-Squad. Then we have the CRU. That is the section where you can complain about all the activities of the police—police officers who are not doing what we expect, policemen who have caused trouble anywhere and policemen who have forcefully collected money from you.
“Call the CRU. You just Google it—the Nigerian Police CRU. All their names and phone numbers will come up. Try them. They are on 24 hours of the day,” the IGP said.
