The sociology of community oriented policing. (A case study of Nairobi Province.)

Abstract

This was an exercise to understand the concept of community policing and find out how this new policing style is working in Nairobi. The study was aimed at finding out how community policing is able to contain crime at manageable levels. The principal assumption behind this study was that crime is a social behavior and its causes can be found in the social, economic, and political conditions of the society. Crime can be studied and understood from a sociological perspective. Solutions to crime problem can be found in the society and not on the individual. Community policing is a superior style of policing when compared with other styles of policing. This style of policing is based on the understanding that crime is a complex social problem which require a multy-agency approach to solve. Community policing is a philosophy which is hard to understand but once understood it is very cheap and easy to implement. Community policing strategy breaks crime into manageable components which are easy to handle. The joint efforts of the police and the public ensures that none of the two is overwhelmed by crime. Two sampling procedures were adopted, police divisions and key informants were purposively selected. Police stations and interviewees were randomly sampled. The methods of data collection used were indepth interviews with key informants, observations, questionnaires and review of documentary materials. The findings of the study were that Community policing is being implemented in Nairobi. There are community policing projects which have been started by the police and others have been started by the communities. However, the implementation is very slow because the government and the public do not put a lot of emphasis on it. Where community policing is in place cnme rates have come down and there are indications that the police and members of the public are working together in solving crimes. The residents of Nairobi have come up with measures to deal with the problem of crime in their residential and commercial areas. Most of these measures are working well in reducing crime. The philosophy of community policing is not well understood by both the police and the public. Members of the public are confusing community policing with vigilante groups while police officers equate community policing with the construction of police stations, repair and maintenance of police vehicles by the members of the public. Police and members of the public are willing to work together, but currently they are not working together because of deep suspicion, mistrust and misunderstanding that exists between the two. Majority of police officers in Nairobi still want to maintain their professional out look, they do not want raia to get involved in their work. Public involvement in policing is seen by some police officers as trespass in their area. Very few police officers are trained in community policing. The training is through seminars which last between one day andtwo weeks. This training period is too short and inadequate because the officers are required to internalize a lot of things within a very short time.