Influence of community policing on crime reduction in Kenya: A case of Machakos county

Abstract

This study aimed at establishing the influence of community policing on crime reduction in Kenya, focusing on Machakos County. Crime affects the lives of all Kenyans and in turn the economy and this may make it difficult to achieve vision 2030. As Kenya seeks to move into a middle level income country, more should be done to improve on the security of business and individual members and especially focus on community policing.The task included; establishing the influence of police-community partnership on crime reduction in Machakos County; assessing the influence of community policing crime prevention strategies on crime reduction in Machakos County; and establishing the influence of police-community problem solving on crime reduction in Machakos County.The study reviewed previous studies through library research with a view to establish academic gaps which the present study sought to bridge. This study adopted a descriptive survey design and targeted households benefiting from community policing services in Machakos Sub County which was selected as the area of study for this report among the eight sub counties in Machakos County, National Police Service (NPS) officers from community policing unit and households in Machakos County. The sample size was 196 households living 200 meters around the Machakos Police Station and Administration Police (AP) Posts in Machakos Sub County. Systematic sampling for the households living around the police stations and posts was done for the study and a questionnaire used for data collection to gather information from the respondents. The study found that there exist a positive association between; police-community partnership and crime reduction in Machakos County, community policing crime prevention strategies and crime reduction in Machakos County, and police-community problem solving and crime reduction in Machakos County. This positive association suggests that when one factor increases, crime reduction in Machakos County, Kenya increases.The study concluded that police-community partnership, community policing crime prevention strategies,and policecommunity problem solving are factors influencing crime reductionin Kenya.The study recommends there is need for more funding; police community forums; more police posts; accessible police posts; using patrols; using contact persons for information; using watch programmes; use sharing of information; effective use of door to door contacts; increasing patrols; improve hotline responses; employ familiar police officers; reduce response time to crimes; better detection techniques; employing more police officers; better equipment; use technology; use of detection equipment; and make proactive arrests, in efforts to ensure community policing has a positive effect on crime reduction in Kenya. The study further recommends need to strengthening of relationship between the police officers and members of the public in order to reduce the level of mistrust especially by members of the public towards the police. Furthermore the National and County Government should develop policy to improve the on how the two levels of Government interact in regards to Community Policing implementation.