Lagos Kick-Starts Community Policing

Lagos State on Wednesday took an audacious step towards improving security in all communities across the State, with the inauguration of State Community Policing Advisory Committee (SCPAC) and its operations arm, State Community Policing Committee (SCPC).

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu inaugurated members of the two committees at a ceremony held at the State House in Alausa, pointing out that the event marked a turning point in the Government’s deliberate effort to re-strategise and rethink the security architecture using Community Policing Initiative as proposed by the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. Muhammed Abubakar Adamu.

The security initiative, the Governor said, is long overdue, adding that the reform is being implemented with the objective to address inadequacies of the current policing model, which, he said, had failed to engage members of local communities and neighbourhoods in knowledge sharing and intelligence gathering that could help in nipping crimes in the bud.

SCPAC, which is co-chaired by the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Hakeem Odumosu, and chairman of Council of Obas and Chiefs in Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu, will be the custodian of the initiative and it is to maintain highest level of oversight on community policing in the State.

SPAC, on the other hand, will be responsible for managing and coordinating the State-level operations of the community policing programme, and it will, among other functions, help identify security threats in communities and work with the police and the Community Police Officers (CPOs) in evolving appropriate strategies for addressing them.

Sanwo-Olu said the community policing initiative was conceived and rolled out to achieve fundamental changes in the way the Government responds to security matters and make security agencies proactive in discharging their statutory duties.

To further take the initiative down to neighbourhoods and draw more participation from residents at the grassroots, Sanwo-Olu said the State Government would be constituting additional committees, which will include: Area Command Community Policing Advisory Committee, Local Government Community Policing Advisory Committee, and Divisional Community Policing Committee.

The Governor also used the occasion to re-assure all security formations in the State of his administration’s commitment to support their activities by providing equipment and resources through the Lagos State Security Trust Fund (LSSTF) and other interventions.

Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) in charge of Training at the Force Headquarters in Abuja, Mr. David Folawiyo, who represented the IGP, said the nation had reached a point where the police must interface with community members in maintaining social order.

“It is a bottom-up approach that shift focus on reactive law enforcement to proactive problem solving,” he said.

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