Community policing as a crime prevention management strategy in Makina Village, Kibera, City of Nairobi

Abstract

The study focused on community policing as a strategy where community collaborates with security agencies to reduce and prevent criminal activities. The objectives were to establish the implementation approaches; identify the challenges; and develop a framework that can address inadequacies on community policing in Makina village. The study employed secondary data from literature review for theoretical framework development and fieldwork tools. Simple random sampling and convenience sampling techniques were applied in the case of residents and police officers whose sample sizes were 103 and 45 respectively. The study also employed crosssectional study design and the data was analysed using Ms Excel programme and presented in tables and figures.

The implementation approaches used by police officers include community partnership whereby residents report incidences of crime to the police station, or to some stationed community policing booths; placement of information boxes at strategic locations to allow gathering for confidential intelligence on crime from the community; and awareness creation and training on community policing by the Government and Civil societies for example Pamoja Trust amongst others.

The challenges found out includes inadequate training on community policing to the residents; inadequate resources in terms of police patrol vehicles; non holding of confidential information; non quick response to crime scenes and/or issues; non thorough conduct of investigations; bribery demand; harassment of people and poor customer service by the police officers; mistrust between police officers and the residents; low level of consultation between the residents and police officers on security matters; low organization of civic education programmes on community policing by government and civil societies; inadequate street lighting; and presence of many passages which happens to be very narrow.