Residents’ Awareness, Understanding And Support For Police- Community Partnership In Crime Control In Ishielu Local Government Area, Ebonyi State, South-East, Nigeria

Abstract

There has been a call to search for effective strategy to control crime in the society because of the inability of Nigeria police to control crime. The Nigeria police in this regard introduced police-community partnership as the newest strategy in crime control which is believed to succeed where other strategies failed due to its inherent inclusiveness in attending to neighbourhood problems. To this end, this paper examined the level of awareness, understanding and support for police-community partnership in crime control by residents of Ishielu Local Government Area, Ebonyi State, South-East, Nigeria. The study is anchored on broken windows theory and empowerment theory. The study adopted mixed methods design. The sample size of 349 was generated using Fisher Lang, Stockel and Townsend method of obtaining sample size. The multi-stage sampling procedure was adopted in selecting respondents for the study. Questionnaire schedule was used to collect quantitative data while in-depth interviews were used to collect qualitative data. The quantitative data were processed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Windows, version 17. Also, descriptive statistics like frequency tables, simple percentages and graphic illustrations were used to analyze the quantitative data while manual content analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data. Findings of the study indicate that majority of the residents were not aware of police-community partnership in crime control. They also indicated support of police-community partnership in controlling crime in the neighbourhood because members of the community can easily identify a criminal and draw police attention. The study therefore recommended among others that the police should create necessary awareness about police-community partnership, especially in the rural areas through constant seminars and workshops. Also, government should establish neighbourhood watch groups in all communities to serve as direct link between the rural communities and the police.