EFFECTIVENESS OF THE LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
For clarity and ease in the review of relevant literature for this study, this chapter will review some empirical literature, theoretical literature, relevant theories, theoretical orientation and research hypotheses.
2.1 Review of Empirical Literatures
Swanson, Territo and Taylor (1998) on the need for community policing noted that there is very little empirical evidence to suggest that community policing actually works. That is why in September 1994 the U.S congress passed the crime bill that provided a total of
$8.9 billion for the allocation of 100,000 new local police officers over a five-year period (1995-2000) to increase and support community policing efforts. In Nigeria, the introduction of the strategy started in 2004.
Schmalleger (1995) conducted a survey on community policing in Reno, Nevada a city of 120,000 residents with 313 police officers following 1987 survey of public opinion which revealed that police department suffered from serious image problem. According to him, community policing efforts began under Chief R.V. Bradshaw, following the defeat of the two public referendums to increase funding levels for the department. Following these and other well-publicized efforts to improve the department’s image, community surveys reported a considerable degree of success. While the initial 1987 survey found only 31.6% of residents feeling good about the police department, a similar 1992 survey revealed 68.7% of the populace reporting such feelings. Similarly, the 33% of respondents reported that officers “did not convey a feeling of concern” but 67% of the officers feel concerned about the development. Eventually, renewed citizen satisfaction with the Reno police department resulted in the success of a local tax referendum that provided the additional officers- a 39% increase in sworn personnel.
A survey conducted in August 2004 in Lagos metropolis by Alemika and Chukwuma (2005) noted that because of high incidence and fear of crime in Nigeria, many communities and individuals took several measures to reduce their feeling of vulnerability and minimize risk of victimization. One of the measures created was Police Community Relations Committee (PCRC). The provision for the establishment of PCRC in police divisions was aimed at developing public–police partnership (community policing) in the fight against crime in the society. The study shows that a third (34%) of the respondents stated that PCRC existed in their area, while 66% reported that they are aware of the role of Police Community Relations Community (Alemika and Chukwuma, 2005:4).
Another survey conducted by Alemika and Chukwuma (2007) on Criminal victimization, safety and policing in Nigeria revealed that 48% (i.e, less than half) of Nigerians agreed that the police are doing everything they can to help people and to be of good service to the people. Nearly 3/10 (i.e, 29.9%) of the respondents disagreed that the police are not doing anything to render good services to the people and slightly more than one-fifth (22.1%) maintained a neutral position. Alemika and Chukwuma are of the opinion that people respect, work and have confidence in the police in the societies where the police serve and work with people in circumstances other than booking them for the breach of law. There tend to be high level of public hostility towards the police and public where encounter occur predominantly in the course of law enforcement. Overall public did not perceive the police as very helpful while overwhelming majority of respondents in some states like Jigawa, Zamfara, Taraba, Benue, Bauchi and Adamawa states said that the police strive to be very helpful and of good service to the public (Alemika and Chukwuma,2007:71-3).
Relating to the efficacy of community-oriented policing (community policing) as a reformist strategy, the empirical evidence from Kenya suggests that community policing may be put to repressive rather than benign use (Carthra, 2009). Anthropological enquires (relating to the study of humankind) further to a stand-off between Western-style community policing initiatives pursued under the help or support of a reforming public police, and indigenous community-based traditions of self-policing in rural Tanzania. Such field observations point to the need for a more critical engagement with the Western imports of models of community policing to the underdeveloped reality of Africa (Brogden, 2004 cited by Carthra, 2009).
2.2 Review of Theoretical Literature
It will be appropriate to look at crime control strategies in both traditional and modern Nigeria societies and why community policing is been favored among them. The theoretical literature is divided into two sub-headings for easy understanding and review.
2.2.1: Crime Control Strategies in Traditional Nigerian Societies.
Crime control according to Oputa (1975) is “all efforts and activities designed to hold the volume of crime in effective check, to keep it from spreading, to restrict and prevent crime infection and contamination, to prevent crime from breaking and spreading to new areas, and to protect society against the activities of habitual and abnormal offenders”. Igbo (2007) has observed that every society takes measures to protect the lives and property of people living within its boundaries. Ugwuoke (2010) has also noted that crime control strategies in the traditional era are carried-out in forms of restitution and revenge which are handled by individuals who took the laws into their own hands and thus carried out punishment in the form of retaliation. According to Ugwuoke (2010:19), victim retaliation was the oldest form of crime control strategy.
Igbo (2007) and Ugwuoke (2010) noted that crime control strategies in traditional Nigeria societies are carried out by age-grades, masquerades, extended family, secret cult, and other local organizations. These groups can impose any of these sanctions: fines and compensation, ritual cleansing, trial by ordeals, ridicule and gossips, confinement, ostracism, banishment, capital punishment and socialization as a process of punishment to any defaulter of the laws of the community. These methods of crime control according to the scholars serve as informal sanctions which are prevalent in most traditional Nigeria societies.
According to Rubington and Weinberg (1991), Mbiti (1969) and Spector (1999), crime controls in traditional societies were mostly informal. Good human relation skills, good characters and behaviours as well as cordiality, folktales, stories and fear of reactive punishments are some of the preventive strategies used by traditional societies to control crime. According to Odedele and Egotanwa (2002), Otite and Oginowo (2006), and Best (2006), only preventive informal strategies are mostly used in traditional/pre-literate societies to control crime. It is only when the preventive strategies failed that reactive strategies are set in motion by the traditional societies. Community policing, restitution, mediation, reconciliation, restoration and reintegration of changed offenders are some of the traditional crime control strategies that have been revived to checkmate crime in contemporary time. Family/kinship system, age-grade, traditional title holders are groups in traditional Africa and in some non western societies which still enforce laws to control crime in contemporary time (Odedele and Egotanwa, 2002).
2.2.2: Crime Control Strategies in Industrial or Modern societies.
Green (1981:10) stated that crime control strategies in the modern world seemed to follow no predictable pattern, other than such development was traditionally in response to public pressure for action. Outside the establishment of night watch patrols in the 17th century, there was no significant effort to establish formal security agencies until the police department was established in New York City in 1783.
In contemporary Nigeria, some crime control strategies include death penalty, imprisonment, and fine (Dambazau, 2009; Igbo, 2007; and Ugwuoke, 2010). Only formal repressive and punitive strategies like death penalty and life imprisonment were approved and used in controlling crime in most modern societies including Nigeria (Carney, 1977). Some of the formal crime control strategies are crime control through legislation, law enforcement, rationalization and death penalty. Contemporary societies including Nigeria adopted some of the traditional crime control strategies like, fines and compensation, confinements, reconciliation, conflict resolution, socialization and death penalty to control crime in the contemporary time (Ugwuoke, 2010).
The formal agencies that are responsible for crime control in contemporary Nigeria era are the criminal justice system which includes the police, court and the correction institution (Bohm and Haley, 2005; Igbo, 2007; Inciardi. 2007; Dambazau, 2009; and Ugwuoke, 2010). These institutions (police, court and the correction centers) established by the British during colonialism in Nigeria 1861 are used them to enforce sanitary regulations in the colony.
For decades, sensing that the professional model like preventive patrol, quick response time, and follow-up investigation did not always operate as efficiently and effectively as it could, criminal justice researchers set out to review procedures and evaluate alternative programs for effective crime control (Bohm and Haley, 2005). It is widely acknowledged that good police/public relationships are vital to successful policing. Without sustained public contact, officers would be unable to exercise their discretion appropriately and would find themselves isolated, increasingly hostile and unable to work with the public (Maguire, Morgan and Reiner, 2002). In line with the search for a better effective crime control strategy, a new strategy which is referred to as community policing was adopted, “which is the collaborative effort between the police and the community to identify the problems of crime and disorder, and develop solutions within the community, making the police more responsive and connected to the communities they serve. Policing is a broad problem-solving enterprise that includes much more than reactive law enforcement, and that officers on the street and in the community should have a major role in crime control strategy (Inciardi, 2007). In view of this, Nigeria Institute of International Affairs (2005:259-60) noted that:
…. the key to security is the responsible exercise of sovereignty, in the absence of which co-operation among neighbors is required to deal with internal problems and conflicts. Measures are required to assure the security of both states where war is no-longer envisaged as a tool of life assured to their citizens, stability calls for the rule of law, accountable democratic procedures, the free participation of the citizenry in governance and full protection of human rights.
Report from Presidential Committees on police reforms in Nigeria stated categorically that “Nigeria police should establish strategic partnerships with all segments of the society, including the traditional institutions in order to build the necessary public support for its crime prevention efforts” (CLEEN Foundation, 2008:32). Nigeria joined the league of other nations in America and Western Europe to adopt these crime control strategy by receiving two US experts on community policing for a two day conference on community policing. The program was aimed at training senior police officers and area commanders in charge of community policing in the 36 states of the federation and Abuja (This Day, Aug. 1, 2006). Dickson (2007) noted that community policing was introduced in 2003 when police officers were sent to England courtesy of the British Department for International Development (DFID) to understand community policing as practiced in the UK. In 2004, more officers were trained as Community Development Officers (CDOs) in Enugu, southeastern Nigeria. These officers were asked to spread the message of community policing to other officers in other states of the federation.
In contemporary societies, implementation plans for community policing is a recent modern crime control strategy, and it vary from agency to agency and from community to community. The appropriate implementation strategy depends on conditions within the law enforcement agency and the society or community that want to embark on it (Bohm and Haley, 2005). Traditional crime control strategies like, fines and compensation, confinements, reconciliation, conflict resolution and socialization and death penalty are also in Nigeria to control crime in the contemporary time ( Ugwuoke, 2010).
2.3Review of Relevant Theories
This section will therefore review some model and theories relevant to the study and bring out their strengths as well as their weaknesses, as well adopt the one best suited for this work as the theoretical orientation.
2.3.1Social Bond Theory
Social bond theory (also called social control theory) articulated by Travis Hirschi in his 1969 book (Causes of Delinquencies), is now the dominant version of control theory (Hirschi,1969 cited by Siegel, 2005 and Siegel, 2007). The theorist links all the onset of criminality to the weakening of the ties that bind people to society. Hirschi assumes that all individuals are potential law violators, but they are kept under control because they fear that illegal behavior will damage their relationships with friends, parents, neighbours, teachers, and employers (Siegel, 2005; and Siegel, 2007). Without these social ties or bonds, and in the absence of sensitivity and interest in others, a person is free to commit criminal acts. To Hirschi, among all ethnic, religious, racial, and social groups, people whose bond to society is weak may fall prey to criminogenic behavior patterns. Hirschi argues that the ‘social bond’ a person maintains with society is divided into four main elements: attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief (Siegel, 2005; Siegel, 2007; Inciardi, 2007; and Carter, 2004). Hirschi further suggested that the interrelationship of social bond elements controls subsequent behavior.
Social bond theory has been corroborated by numerous research studies showing that delinquent youth often feel detached from society (Siegel, 2007).
Some of the criticism of Hirschi (social bond) theory include: LaGrange and Raskin (1985) who noted that Hirschi ignored that social bonds seem to change over time. One of the most severe criticisms by sociologist Robert Agnew is that Hirschi miscalculated the direction of the relationship between criminality and a weakened social bond (Agnew,1985). Hirschi’s theory projects that a weakened bond leads to delinquency but Agnew suggest that the chain of events may flow in the opposite direction. In other words, kids who break the law find that their bond to parents, schools, and society eventually becomes weak and attenuated.
2.3.2Social Disorganization Theory
The social disorganization theory was propounded by a group of sociologists at the University of Chicago who assumed in their research that delinquent/criminal behavour was as a product of social disorganization (Bohm and Haley, 2005). Bohm and Haley (2005) and Inciardi (2007) noted that the theory was first popularized by Clifford R. Shaw and Henry D. Mckay during the early 1920s while working as researchers for a state–supported social service agency.
For the theorists, social disorganization is a condition in which the usual controls over delinquents are largely absent, delinquents behavior is often approved by parents and neighbours and there is little encouragement , training, or opportunity for legitimate employment. Siegel (2007) and Inciardi (2007) link high crime rates to neighborhood ecological characteristics. To them, youths from disadvantaged neighbourhood where participants in a subculture in which delinquency was approved behavior and that criminality was acquired in social and cultural settings through process of interaction.
In 1932, Shaw and Mckay established the Chicago Area Project (CAP) to coordinate community resources such as schools, churches, labour unions and industries to solve community problems. And also to sponsor activity programs, such as scouting, summer camps and sports leagues, this is to develop a positive interest by individuals in their own welfare and to unite citizens to solve their own problems.
One of the problems with the theory is the presumption that social disorganization is a cause of delinguency/criminality. Both social disorganization and delinquency may be the product of other things (Bohm and Haley, 2005:83).
2.3.3 Crime Control model
This model was propounded by Herbert Packer in 1968 (Gaines, Kaune and Miller, 2000; Bohm and Haley, 2005 and Inciardi, 2007). According to Bohm and Haley, the control model emphasizes efficiency of the criminal justice to process and repress criminal conduct. Packer is of the view that formal strategies of crime control should be developed for the purpose of protecting the society from crime and violent criminals. According to Siegel (2005), one sure way through which Packer suggested that this will be achieved, is by developing formal strategies that will be geared towards detecting, repressing, prosecuting and ultimately punishing those found to have been or suspected to have committed crime in the society. Examples of formal strategies that were suggested to be used in detecting and repressing crime include the followings: rationalization, legislation, development of the criminal justice system, etc (Innes, 2004; Inciardi, 2007).
Crime control model has been criticized for being too repressive, too punitive and inhuman (Westley, 1953; Commission on Civil Rights Report, 1961). American Civil Liberties Union (1959), Becker (1999), Clemner (1950), Dambazau (2007) and Lewis (1961) criticized the model for endangering the society instead of protecting it. Other models of controlling crime were sought and developed because of the failure of the crime control model to achieve the goal of protection of the society from crime and criminals.
2.3.4 Broken Windows Theory (BWT)
Broken windows theory (BWT) was popularized by James Q. Wilson and George Kelling in an article which appeared in the March 1982 edition of ‘The Atlantic Monthly’ (Jones, 2005; Giddens, 2004; Inciardi, 2007). The theory suggests “that there is direct connection between the appearance of disorder and actual crime” (Giddens, 2004:214). Giddens (2004), Haralambos and Holborn (2004), Jones (2005), and Inciardi (2007) noted that if a single broken window is allowed to go unrepaired in a neighborhood (i.e, when residents overlook minor offences like prostitution, drunkenness, pick-pocketing etc), it sends a message to potential offenders that neither police nor local residents are committed to the upkeep of the community. In time, the broken windows will be joined by further signs of disorder, vandalism, and abandoned vehicles (the minor crime will graduate to bigger crimes like kidnapping, assassination, rape, burglary, fraud). The area will begin a gradual process of decay and social disorder will flourish and law abiding citizens will be afraid and seek to leave and will be replaced by deviant newcomers such as drug dealers, the homeless and people on parole (Giddens, 2004).
Findings from a longitudinal study in Baltimore conducted by Taylor (2001) provided further support to the theory. Skogan (1986) supported it by saying that disorder reduces the extent to which the local community could exercise control over its own affairs and crime might increase as a consequence of this.
Taylor criticized the theory by pointing out that disorder was not wholly responsible for the changes that occurred and that other social factors had to be considered as well (Taylor, 2001 cited by Jones, 2005). Contemporary developments have belittled the effectiveness of the theory as some crimes are perpetrated by people who are not domiciled in the environment of the crime. An example is cyber crime and organized crime, where victims are not necessarily close to the criminals; in fact they are usually miles away from one another.
2.4 Theoretical Orientation
The theoretical underpinning that will be used in this work to explain the concept of community policing in Nigeria is the Broken Windows theory (BWT). The BWT suggests that public disorder offences like vandalism and rowdy behaviour can create a downward spiral of neighbourhood deterioration and fear of crime that leads to more deterioration and more serious crimes if not checked by the community (i.e, minor offences like prostitution, drunkenness, pick-pocketing etc can degenerate to bigger crimes like kidnapping, assassination, rape, burglary, fraud when over looked by community and police or other law enforcement agencies). This is because little crimes like vandalism, broken windows, and others tend to portray the impression that nobody cares about the community and that residents as well as the police have lost control over the community. On the other hand, increased police presence and enforcements of informal rules of conduct and laws can make a community seem less chaotic and safer thereby increased presence and involvement of residents in their community and lowering crime rates.
BWT can be incorporated into the concept of community policing in the sense that collective effort by both the police and community dwellers can help alleviate the rate of crime in the community as the police see residents as partners in development and vice versa. In line with the Yoruba adage that says “the insect that destroys the vegetable resides right inside the vegetable,” BWT assumes that most neighbourhood crimes are more often than not perpetrated by offenders who reside near the victims; this makes crime primarily a local problem which can best be solved locally. BWT is very useful in explaining the synergy between the police and the community in crime detection because with the constant contact of the police and the citizen, both minor and major problems of crimes will be solved and it will reduce crime and fear of crime in the community. The theory encourages the public and the police to analyze crime, disorder and develop solutions towards criminality. When a crime occurs, residents and police should try to find out why it happened and what can be done to avoid it in the future rather than simply disposing of the case (Inciardi, 2007:209).
The emergence of the Nigeria Police:
The establishment of today’s Nigeria police came as a result of 30-person consular guard under the authority of the then governor of British West Africa in October 1861. In 1861 governor of Lagos colony, McCoskry, organised and established the nucleus of the first police force- Hausa constabulary of 30 men (Tamuno, 1970; the Nigerian police, 1981). This formation marked the beginnings of the first modern police in the history of Lagos. It was also the first modern police force in the territories later designated Nigeria by the British (Tamuno, 1970). In 1879 there was the establishment of the constabulary of Lagos colony, with the appointment of the first commissioner of police in 1896. There come the royal Niger constabulary in 1886 which was established by the royal Niger Company for the northern territories. The British colonialist established the police institution for the purpose of advancing the European colonial commercial and strategic interests against the natives especially in the colony and the protectorates (Odikalu, 2004). Allure (1991) argue that the emerging ruling class in colonial Nigeria was a foreign and illegitimate one which sought to dominate and exploits the indigenous people in the interests of its own metropolitan (British) economy. The effort of this foreign ruling class to subdue the indigenous people and to impose a careful surveillance over them in order to forestall any popular resection created an obsession with the policing of public order.
By 1900 the royal Niger constabulary spitted into two groups, the northern Nigeria police force for the colony and police force and regiment for the protectorate. The force of the colony later emerged with the southern Nigeria police force. 1914 amalgamation had two different police formation for both Northern and Southern Nigeria. In 1930, colonial government established Nigeria Police force headed by an Inspector-General. However, regionalization of police formations remained (Ochikalu, 2004).
Section 4 of the police acts of 1967 provides that “the police shall be employed for the prevention and detection of crime, the apprehension of offenders, preservation of law and order, the protection of life and property and the due enforcement of all laws and regulations with which they are directly charged and shall perform such military duties within or outside Nigeria as may be required of them by, or under the authority of this or any other act”. Aina (2014) postulate that the duties are stationary and the police owe these duties to the generality of Nigerians and all other persons lawfully living within Nigeria. They are therefore answerable to the law in performance of their duties. The question then is does Nigeria police perform this duties effectively and effectively as they ought to. Majority of Nigerians are of the opinion that police performance has being below good commendation.
What does effectiveness and efficiency mean to police work? Effectiveness means task performance. Effective organisations are those which meet challenges put to them and satisfy demands for services or solve problems. Also, Efficiency is defined in terms of processing costs. Efficient organisations are those which convert inputs into outputs with less organisational efforts. Efficient organisation gives us more for our money. Etzioni (1964) explain that efficiency is a concept by which we access the processing activity of organisation, how they go about facing problems, while effectiveness is a concept which denotes their goal matching, their ability to solve substantive problems. Odekunle (2004) posited that effectiveness is the ability of the force to successfully perform its assigned tasks; and by efficiency it is the capacity to perform its functions with the least amount of “waste”, in terms of time, material, personnel public good will, and lives. Therefore, efficient police is the one that achieve a level of input-output conversion with less effort on the part of the organisation: fewer men, less equipment, or lower expeditions (Skogan, 1976).
In lieu of these, the importance of policing the society and the people’s perception of the government which the police represent cannot be overestimated. Odekunle (2004) gives three points that when considered, it will make it becomes clearer.
1.Policemen are the government officials most proximate to crime, temporarily and procedurally, and the leading figures in crime prevention or control and in the law enforcement process.
2.Policemen’s honesty, integrity and observations of procedural laws in handling offenders and non-offenders have deep implications for the citizens’ perceptions: fairness and justice and for the degree of respect the average citizen has for the law;
3.Being highly visible (compared to courts or prisons) and being the primary or main government authority legally authorized to use force on citizens, policemen’s behaviour affect the citizen’s opinion about their government.
For the purpose of this study, it is appropriate to discuss what constitutes security. Ejogba (2006) assert that explaining security in modern times is a question that has never been answered satisfactorily by scholars. Its perception even within one community varies in time. Thomas Hobbes (1962) sees security as the protection of lives and property and entire law and order through political sovereignty and monopoly of violence which state/ government provide. As define by South African White Paper on Defence (1996), security is an all-encompassing condition in which individual citizen live in freedom, peace and safety, participate fully in the process of governance. Enjoy the protection of fundamental right, have access to resource and the basic necessities of life, and inhabit an environment which is not determined to their health and will being. This definition presents that security cut across all human existence. Until now, most of the definition on security literarily tends towards the arguments of Thomas Hobbes as pointed out above. Okwori (1995) postulate that it is a state’s capabilities to defend it territorial integrity from threats, actual and imagined, as well as acts of aggression from other potential enemies. This is what state’s built and equips armed forces to achieve. At the domestic level, the belief is that internal law enforcement agencies and other instruments of domestic intelligence are all that is required for a state to be secured (Katsina, 2012). This is where Nigeria police comes into play. The internal security is primarily the business of the police. Basically, the Police are to fulfil government’s primary obligation of catering for the security and welfare of the people. Escalation of social disorder and instability in the country challenges the role police in combating crimes and criminality.
Insecurity according to Achuba, Ighomereho and Akpor-robaro (2013) is the antithesis of security and has attracted some common description and want of safety, danger, hazard, uncertainty, want of confidence, state of doubt, inadequately guarded or protected, instability, trouble, lack of protection and being unsafe, and others. Achumba et al in Onifade et al argue further that these common descriptors point out to a condition where there exists a vulnerability to harm, loss of life, property and livelihood. So insecurity is therefore considered as a state of not knowing, a lack of control, and the inability to take defensive action against forces that portend harm to danger to an individual or group, or that make them vulnerable. Furthermore, Beland (2005) aver that insecurity is “the state of fear or anxiety stemming from a concrete or alleged lack of protection. Putting all the above stated explanation together, the state of Nigeria security can be seen clear as one that is under threats. The nation is undergoing a serious state of insecurity challenges that have bedevilled the affairs of the state such as terrorism, kidnapping, militancy, religion upheaval. These papers consider the challenges of insecurity in Nigeria alongside with the factors that contribute to it.
The Challenges of the Police Which Hinder Their Effective Performance
Taking into account the amount of quality protections provided by the Nigeria police for the entire population and the level of confidence and encouragement it enjoys from these people, one cannot but conclude that the Nigeria police performance is far below the expectation many people place on them. There are several cumulative problems that contribute to the abysmal performance of the Nigeria police. This ranges from material to human and external challenges.
Widespread of corruption among the members of the Nigeria police is alarming. This has greatly soiled the image of the police. Alemika (1999) postulated that the police corruption is a serious issue because they are expected to be moral as law enforcement agency. The issue of police corruption is an undeniable fact with several evidence of their involvement. These among many others are; police connivance with some individuals to help offenders out of police custody after obtaining money from suspects, closure of case files, escorting vehicles loaded with contraband goods and stolen items, stealing from suspects and or accident victims, stealing from crime scenes, supply of police arms and ammunition with police uniforms to criminals for monetary gain etc. Olurotimi (2012). Corrupt and indiscipline socio-economic environment among others are some of the poor salaries. Furthermore, Odekunle (2004) gave some categories of obstacle that hinder the optimum performance of the Nigeria police thus;
Poor police remuneration for both officers and men of police command is another notable factor that has created abysmal performance for police officers in performing their constitutional duties. The issue of police corruption as discussed above does not only occur between the police and the public but also with the strata of police structure. There have being cases whereby senior police officers have deprived other officers especially junior once the right of increment in salary for some time. These people have being alleged to have stacked the money in a fixed deposit out which will yield some interest for them before releasing it fund. Odekunle (2004) argue that the Nigeria police has human problems that not only aggravate its material in sufficiency’s, but one also of tremendous adverse import on its general performance from day to day among them is discouraging salaries.
It has been noted that the Nigeria police lack adequate equipment and ammunition that can help in assisting them combating crimes in the society. Abdulkadir (2004) argue that the Nigeria police force lack adequate communication gadgets, vehicles, computers and patrol boats.