Are Our Police Officers Unfit for Kits?

 

The large-scale insecurity in Nigeria is a by-product of several interrelated issues, no doubt. However, a significant contributor to the challenge of the war against insecurity is the gross inadequacy of policing kits in the country. The Nigerian military is overstretched partly because the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has not been optimally empowered to tackle crime & criminality. A close relative of mine, who was a victim of impersonation, had the investigation of her complaint delayed by the police for more than three weeks due to the malfunctioning of the only “signal” equipment or phone tracker in that jurisdiction. How can Nigeria effectively source, analyse, and proactively use intelligence to maintain security across 774 Local Government Areas of the country when the Nigeria Police Force reeks of a dearth of necessary operational tools? If you doubt me, go to the nearest police station right now and tell me whether that sight makes you want to cry to the police for help.

 

I am neither a policeman nor a trained security officer. However, every time I travel outside Nigeria, I see what the conventional sheriff in some developing and developed countries carries on their person. I also watch movies, and I’m an avid reader. As I noted in one of my articles years back, “Nigerians born within the last 35-40 years are largely ignorant of the norms and modern ways of doing virtually everything. The depressing part is that most of us don’t even know that we don’t know, save for some who have had the opportunity of crisscrossing the globe either physically or via virtual connections. Thus, if one is not deliberately looking elsewhere for standards and rightful benchmarks, the tendency is very rife to wrongly assume that, for instance, a dirty-looking wooden stick, or a terrifying & rust-bearing AK-47 rifle, and the uncouth commands of “hey, stop there” by Nigerian Policemen are the standard policing tools and operational modalities everywhere across the world.”

 

Given that Nigeria is not a rich country, one cannot help but question the details of the ballooning security budget over the past decades. Is it only the military that receives huge chunks to purchase gadgets? What about the police? What exactly does the Federal government buy for the average policeman to enhance their operational capacity? As the NPF, led by the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, and the Police Service Commission, seek to implement President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s directive to recruit 20,000 additional police officers nationwide, let’s ask whether the current serving officers are well-equipped. And will the recruits be equipped with modern policing kits as well? I want to classify these policing tools into collective and personal kits.

 

The major collective kits for effective policing are;                                                                                

1. Modern police stations equipped with functional, basic infrastructure such as uninterrupted electricity, water & internet, computers, dedicated institutional phone lines & e-mails, and other essentials like phone trackers, CCTV cameras, armoury stores, police sniffer dogs, police clinics, forensic laboratories in some zonal arrangements, etc.

2. Police automobiles, which include purpose-built cars, armoured personnel carriers, motorbikes, bicycles, ambulances with police paramedics, and even helicopters, with funds for routine maintenance of all these vehicles.

This list of collective policing kits presented here is not exhaustive.

The major personal policing kits on the other hand, needed in the 21^st century are beyond uniforms, boots, helmets, Ak-47 rifles, batons (called “Kondo Olopa” in Yoruba parlance), bulletproof jackets, and handcuffs. A police officer trained and ready to combat crime in modern times should also carry the following personal policing kits.

1. A body jacket (worn over uniforms and has many pockets to hold essential policing accessories)

2. A duty belt (also securely carries many essential policing accessories)

3. A flashlight (to illuminate dark crime spots both in the day and at night)

4. A Body-Worn Camera (that makes real-time audiovisual recordings for evidence collection & intelligence gathering)

5. Rubber gloves (to professionally ensure safety searches, prevent contamination of potential forensic materials, and protect law enforcement agents against biohazards)

6. A breathalyzer (for Preliminary Breath Test to detect drunk driving)

7. A radio (for communication with police formations)

8. Pepper Spray (a non-lethal tool to subdue violent subjects)

9. Taser gun (a not-so-lethal tool to temporarily incapacitate individuals with an electric current)

10. A Knife (a multi-functional policing tool used to rescue trapped victims, cut open suspected criminal materials, and serves as a defensive weapon for the officer)

11. Arms (a handgun or Pistol, as most developed countries, for instance, disapprove of major firearms like an Ak-47 rifle for their regular police officers because it is seen as an unfriendly firearm for civil situations in urban and semi-urban settings that has the potential for large-scale collateral damage, and is instead reserved for war-like situations)

12. Handgun/Pistol holster (it is a gun-holder strapped to belts for safe-holding)

13. Ammunition (which includes cartridges, bullets, etc., for the approved police firearm);

Again, please note that the list of personal policing kits presented here is not exhaustive.

Dear listeners, look out of your window and tell us if the police officers you see on Nigerian streets bear up to 30% of the kits I just listed. If technology-enabled intelligence gathering and combat gadgets are the lifeblood of effective policing in the 21st century, why do most of our police stations in Nigeria, as well as our gallant police officers, lack these kits? What sort of security are they expected to provide and maintain? Or are our police officers considered unfit for these kits?

My name is Adetolu Ademujimi, a Medical Doctor, Healthcare Finance Specialist, Author, Reformer, Public Policy expert, and social entrepreneur who can be reached in Abuja through adetoluademujimi@gmail.com. You can also visit my website www.adetoluademujimi.com.

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