The Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, has said the loss of confidence between the Police and the Nigerians was one of the major challenges hampering effective discharge of the Force responsibility.
He said introduction of community policing was part of the efforts aimed at rebuilding the lost confidence.
Adamu, who was represented at a policy dialogue on policing organised by the House of Representatives to collate views on a bill to amend the Police Service Commission act by DIG Olushola Oyebande, said management of the Police was working on regaining public trust.
He said: “We all know that constitutionally, the police have legal rights to live and legally speaking, the constitution guarantees a position where they can even use their fire arms to defend themselves when the situation demands.
“Within all that, we have asked them not to do anything that will bring colossal loss to members of the public.
“Going forward, there’s a lot of confidence building mechanism that’s being put in place to retrain the police to bring back confidence.
“Now a major problem is lack of confidence between the police and members of the public.
“That’s why the present administration came up with community policing and we are trying to see how it will work.
“It’s the best form of policing and a global phenomenon. I was part of the team that went to do the research.
“There’s a lot of distrust and disconnect between the police and the public. So the community policing will try to bring this into focus and to bridge that gap.
“It’s going to be community driven and problem solving. We want to involve the community, the locals to be part of policing of the area.
“They know the culture, the language, topography and that’s why we’re having the community policing initiative to train the locals to join us. So we don’t prevent proactive policing, rather than being reactive.”
