Community Policing Takes Chief of Police to United States

 
As part of his efforts to bring the Nigeria Police Force closer to the community it serves, which was articulated in his eight point strategy, the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Tafa Balogun, visited three police departments in the United States between December 2003 and March 2004, to under study their implementation of community policing and how it could be adapted to the Nigerian situation. The visits, which were coordinated by the Consul General of Nigeria in Atlanta, Mr. Joe Keshi, took the IGP and his delegation to Houston, Atlanta and Chicago. Two directors of the CLEEN Foundation, Innocent Chukwuma and Frank Odita, were part of the delegation, which included Mr. Yekini Jimoh, Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone 7 Abuja, Olushola Amore, Assistant Commissioner of Police and Edward Adiele, Superintendent of Police and Chief Security Officer to the IGP.

During the visits, the IGP and his team held meetings with various stakeholders on community policing in the three cities, visited program sites as well as police training colleges.

Meetings in Houston
 
The first meeting in Houston was with the Mayor of Houston, Mr. Lee P. Brown, who remarked that the visit was made possible by President Obasanjo who had solicited the city’s assistance in reforming the Nigeria Police Force during his visit in October 2003. The mayor informed the team that he was a former police chief and had headed the police in Houston, New York and Atlanta, three major cities in United States and that he pioneered the introduction of the concept of community policing in United States about 20 years ago in Houston. Owing to the successes of the programme in improving police community relations, reduction of crime, disorder and fear of crime; the mayor informed that over 70 percent of the 19, 000 police forces in United States and many abroad are currently implementing community policing, including South Africa.

Going down memory lane on the history of community oriented policing, the mayor informed that prior to the year 1982, when he became the chief of police of the Houston Police Department, relationship between the citizens and the police was very poor, especially with minority groups such as African Americans, Hispanics, Latinos and Asians. And that crime was at the roof tops. All the police basically did in his words were: “kick butts and write tickets”, using traditional policing strategy of reactive policing.

The second meeting the IGP’s team had was with T. N. Oetmeier, the Executive Assistant Chief of Police of the Houston Police Department HPD, who presented an overview of community policing in Houston. Mr. Oetmeier was reputed to have worked closely with the Mayor, when he was chief of Houston Police Department, in the design and development of community oriented policing in the city.

In his presentation, Mr. Oetmeier informed the delegation that the population of Houston was 2 million and that the combined personnel resources of the Police Department (HPD) was 7000, made up of 5400 police officers and 1600 civilians. He said the police received an average of 1.2 million calls each year and that about 130 cars were stolen each day from the city. In response to this situation, the HPD had to adopt a policing strategy that networks police resources and those of the citizens, since the police couldn’t do it alone, hence the adoption of community policing.

Mr. Oetmeier identified a number of principles and components, which he considered critical in the successful implementation of community policing anywhere in the world. Some of these, which were elaborated in the literature he handed out to members of the delegation included: Orientation towards problem solving; articulation of policing values that incorporate citizen involvement in matters that directly affects the safety and quality of their neighbourhood life; constant communication, interaction and accountability to the community; permanent beat assignments to officers, which allows them to become integral part of the community; organisation of training programmes that provides information to officers at recruit level about the complexities and dynamics of the community and the police fit into the larger picture; performance evaluation that is based on officers ability to solve problems and involve the community in crime prevention and control efforts and decentralization of authority and structures of police authority and structure since under community policing the decision making process expands significantly to include community members.

To demonstrate to the delegation how the identified principles and components of community policing worked in Houston, the IGP and his team were taken on a tour of different police districts, academy and programmes sites of the HPD’s community oriented policing strategy where they held meetings with officers running the divisions and implementing the programmes.

Meetings in Chicago and Atlanta

The meetings in Chicago and Atlanta focused on possible areas of collaboration between the Nigeria police Force and the two cities’ police departments in the implementation of community policing in Nigeria, as well as technical and donor support for the programme.

The first meeting in Chicago was held with the Chicago city officials at the City Hall on March 3, 2004. The meeting started with formal introduction of members of the IGP delegations as well as the senior officials of the city government. This was followed by general discussions of policing situations in Nigeria and Chicago and comparable experiences as well as lessons learned. This session ended with a group photograph of the IGP delegation with the city officials. After the open session, members of the delegation entered into a close door meeting with the chairman of the finance community of the Chicago City government and his staff to explore possible areas of resource assistance to the Nigeria Police Force, especially in the area of providing resources to the Chicago Police Department, which would enable it offer training assistance on community policing to its Nigerian counterpart. The plea was well received by the Chairman who promised to continue the discussion with his colleagues to explore how best to provide the requested assistance.

Following the meeting at the city, the delegation met with the Commandant of the Chicago Police Academy. The meeting focused on possible areas of assistance the Academy could render to the Nigeria Police Force in the training of its Community Policing Developers (CPDs). He informed the delegation that police officials from Eastern Europe, Germany and South Africa had come to the academy for training on community policing issues in the past and said that with the approval of his chief of police and the city government they could extend training assistance to members of the Nigeria Police Force.

The commandant advised the delegation to write a formal request for training assistance to his chief of police stating the type of training required, the duration, number of officers to be involved and over what period of time. He promised that once such a request is sent and necessary approval obtained, that his academy would in collaboration with the Nigeria Police develop training modules for the project and commence with it at a mutually agreed date.
 
The next meeting of the Inspector General of Police was with the President of MacArthur Foundation, Mr. Jonathan Fanton and senior officials of the Foundation. The meeting held at the Foundation’s headquarters located at 140 South Dearbon Street Chicago.

In his remarks, the IGP thanked Macarthur Foundation for the support the Foundation has continued to give for leadership development, advancement of human rights and democratic freedoms, and pursuit of academic excellence in Nigeria over the past ten years and particularly to CLEEN Foundation and the Network on Police Reform in Nigeria (NOPRIN), which are partners of the Nigeria Police Force. He informed his host that his delegation was in the United State to learn from the experience of the City of Chicago in community policing and to seek the support of stakeholders like Macarthur in the implementation of his administration’s strategic plan on community policing in Nigeria.

The IGP requested the support of the Foundation in the implementation of three programmes drawn from his Community Policing Plan. These included support for programmes to train of 740 Nigerian police officers on the concept and practice of community policing, who would on completion of their training serve as Community Policing Developers in the 36 polices commands in Nigeria and creation of awareness within the Nigeria Police Force and the general public on the basic principles, values and practice of community policing through the organisation of seminars, workshops and other public awareness activities in the 36 state commands of the Nigeria Police Force. Mr. Fanton in his response pledged the continued support of his Foundation to police reform work in Nigeria and that they would make some contribution towards meeting the IGP’s request.

Before the IGP left Chicago, he met with the Chief of Police who again promised that his police department would assist the Nigeria Police Force in the areas of training and logistics assistants. The meetings in Atlanta followed similar patterns with that of Houston and Chicago. While in the city, the IGP delegation met with various stakeholders on safety and security. The team also visited the Atlanta police academy and the integrated communication center, which handled all service calls within the city, including those for the police and fire departments.
 
Since the delegation came back from the United States, they have in collaboration with another police team that visited the United Kingdom on similar mission, developed a strategic plan on community policing in Nigeria, which has been approved for implementation by the Inspector General of Police.