Thread by @segalink

Our institutions are further weakened when those at the helm pitch themselves against strategic counsel and global best practices. You’ve said this severally and I have in-turn echoed same across arms of Government & with the Police. They are commercializing community policing.

Community Policing need not be interpreted and executed from the prism of ethnicity. It operates based on the concept of patriotic engagement via physical, cognitive and emotional expression of humanity & organic contribution to society.

It needs not cost the country anything extra as you have illustrated in your publications. It may be incentivized by state Govt but this shouldn’t cause any distraction or serve as another avenue to loot. The idea is for society to engage police outside criminal investigation.

Creating “community police officers” as a special squad is a demonstration of lack of understanding of the concept. It MUST become a task for every police officer to be assigned a school, a worship centre, institution or market association to visit 4 times a month for engagement.

The fulfillment of this should become a criteria for which promotion is based. It should become a sort of CPD— Continuing Professional Development describing the learning activities professionals engage in to develop and enhance their abilities.

The senior officers must play a supervisory role and be trained towards the objectives and the end goal of the community policing principles which enhance our chances at successfully deploying intelligence led policing as done globally. The current execution route is unfortunate.

This also explains why our leaders are allergic to fess II all counsel. Every new term is interpreted for benefits and plunder. Community Policing and Intelligence led policing principles need not warrant the formation of yet another committee or new budget. #SaveNigeria

Read @DrCOmole’s books and learn more. This can even be expanded to include special marshals across walks of life. A Doctor, Nurse, Mechanic and other people we can’t do without engaging in society can volunteer a few hours in a week to help gather intel for early warning signs.

We can’t bridge institutional gap and win public trust without transparency and accountability. The public and the Police must meet at a point and nothing strengthens that union like strategic engagement, but will the rent seekers allow sanity reign for the sake of all our kids?

Go to Rwanda and you will see how this strategy is working to ensure there is no repeat of another genocide. Doctors, Cab drivers etc are all special marshals gathering intel on possible sleeper cells. They are sharing Useful information in trust for the sake of the security.

It is ludicrous for a principle as simple as this to be botched and fraudulently misinterpreted to mean redeploying police officers to their states of origin on the grounds of community policing when the ideal is about cognizance of ecology based on locality.

My parents were originally from Ogun State. Dad has been all over the North and mum has been all over the South. We the kids were born and raised in Lagos. If I join the police, would they expect me to be redeployed to Ogun state that I’m hardly familiar with?

An Igbo man raised and bred in Kano within the Police will function effectively in engaging the Igbo community in the North than a northerner redeployed from Lagos all because he’s from the North. These are commonsensical issues that need not cause headache or waste funds.

We have special road safety marshals. I was trained as one from school. We put in the time to help as a civic duty. The police should use this model for the Community Policing model instead of looking for how to make money from ambiguity at the expense of our beleaguered state.

A practical example of “Community Police Principle” is the work being done by @SIAF_NG over the years across Nigeria. We gather intel and collaborate with the police intelligently while policing the boots on ground to stem police brutality and the culture of impunity for FREE!