COMMUNIQUÉ ISSUED AT THE END OF THE 6TH POLICING EXECUTIVE FORUM ON INTELLIGENCE-LED POLICING IN NIGERIA

The 6th Policing Executive Forum was held in Denis Hotel Abuja on the 27^th of July, 2012 with the theme: “Intelligence Led Policing in Nigeria”. The Forum which is a biannual conference on policing focused on the role of intelligence in crime prevention. The conference was organised by the CLEEN Foundation in collaboration with the Macarthur Foundation and the Justice for All Programme of the UK Department for International Development. Participants were drawn from the Nigeria Police Force, Ministry of Police Affairs, National Human Rights Commission, Ministry of Police Affairs and civil society groups. The Participants deliberated on issues relating to crime and the reformation of the law enforcement systems through the development of intelligence mechanisms. Papers were presented by academics and retired and serving security personnel, and these led to very insightful discussions.

OBSERVATIONS

The forum made the following observations:

1.      There is a global dissatisfaction with policing services, occasioned by a globalisation of crime while most policing organisations are structured to think locally;

2.      Lack of efficient performance evaluation methods in Nigeria’s policing system have contributed to lack of relevance of intelligence in crime prevention;

3.      There is inadequate intelligence for the police to investigate and detect crimes;

4.      That the relationship between state intelligence and criminal intelligence is yet to be established by security policy makers, which has led to lapses and inefficiency;

5.      Intelligence-led policing as a concept extends beyond the institution of the Nigeria Police Force and embraces all security organs involved in general safety and security of the public. It is a process of gathering and organising information to guide tactical and strategic decisions for prevention and solving crimes;

6.      The Freedom of Information Act (2011) strengthens intelligence-led policing, as it provides that public institutions must disclose information as long as disclosure is in the public interest, even though the law guarantees personal privacy.

RECOMMENDATIONS

At the end of the deliberations, the Policing Executive Forum made the following recommendations:

1.      That there is the need to set out structures and processes that would provide strategic guidelines to gathering intelligence and also to meet up with the contemporary policing system;

2.      The government should develop and adopt a national intelligence sharing policy. This should be accompanied by the establishment of a national intelligence database;

3.      Taking cognisance of the need for synergy between the police and other security agencies, regular forums for horizontal and vertical sharing of intelligence at every level must be created and supported;

4.      Government should create special budgets for the training and re-training of the security personnel to strengthen intelligence capability. Such trainings must emphasise goals and objectives of intelligence gathering;

5.      A modern training curriculum on intelligence-led policing should be developed for security training institutions;

6.      A needs-assessment of the FIB Unit of the Nigeria Police should be conducted to identify trainable personnel and facilities that need to be improved upon;

7.      The community policing entity should be reinvigorated for effective intelligence-led policing in Nigeria.