Re-Inventing Police Legitimacy for Crime Control in Nigeria: A Human Factor Approach

Abstract

In Nigeria today, the level of crime and criminal activities has phenomenally heightened. This has manifested in the perennial cases of kidnapping, assassination, bombing, bank robbery, homicide, burglary, forcible rape, high-way and low-way robbery, pipe line vandalism, oil theft and ritual killings among other forms of crimes. Owing to this prevailing situation, this study was set out to investigate the issue of police legitimacy crisis and their capacity to control crime. The study relied solely on secondary data and content analysis. This study revealed that the absence of police legitimacy is responsible for the inability of the police to get assistance from the public in the area of crime control because they see the police as being corrupt, using force illegitimately, lacking integrity, and bereft of trust and accountability. From the findings of the study, the researchers therefore recommended the adoption of human factors approach as a means of redressing police legitimacy crisis in Nigeria. The human factors approach entails the police frantically building and gathering integrity, trust, accountability, responsibility and other virtues to itself. It is strongly believed that the development and adoption of human factor features among the police will go a long way in redeeming their battered image, and thus repositioning the force on the part of efficiency in crime control in Nigeria.

Keywords: Re-inventing, police, legitimacy, crime control, human factor, Nigeria