THE PUBLIC PERCEPTIVE OF NIGERIAN POLICE FORCE

CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
The Nigeria police force is designated by section 194 of 1979 constitution as the national police of Nigeria with exclusive jurisdiction throughout the country.
The Nigeria police today are fixed with the crisis of legitimacy. Two overrading problems are evident. One is the significance increase in crime violence and insurgency. The others is the growing distrust for the police by the public.
It is generally held by the member of the public that the Nigeria police force is corrupt and inefficiency, incompetence brutal and inherently lazy.

1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
The social contract of John Locke, Jean Rousseau and other that rationalized the creation of society and the state has been severely analyzed (Short 1986). Analyst argued the citizen consented to be ruled by the state in return for a guaranteed security, Justices and well-being of all (Ask, 2005, 1969 Collier, 2003).
The existence of this imaginary contract has thus form the government, it equally accounts for the establishment of the criminal justice system charged with maintenance of law and order (Nwankwo 1981).
At the inauguration of the Nigeria police force (NPF) on 1st April 1930, their statutory function include the detection and prevention of crime, apprehension and prosecution of criminal, protection and prevention of crime, apprehension and prosecution of criminal, protection of lives and property of the citizen, enforcement and maintenance of law and order (Nwankwo 1981) while other function , including that ensuring the free flow of traffic especially in the cities (Okonkwo 1996) and participating in peace keeping operation within and outside Nigeria (Police Act 1990) (AP 33589, 5.4) were later added and combine to make the police the most visible symbol of the law in Nigeria.

Successful crime detection, prevention and control, justice and safety are important for two reasons. It allow for the prosecution and punishment of offenders and defers potential criminals from floating the (Ask 2006). However, in Idah metropolis in particular and Nigeria generally, crime has become an inadequate fact of life. Citizen prepare daily forward off criminals. This preparation is demonstrated in all fences around home’s, security lock, burglary, security gate and formation of vigilante group, Neighborhood crime watcher (NCW) and the employment and day and night watchman (Ikoh and Joeph 2010).
Despite these, crime rate in the country and in Idah in particular remained unacceptable high. The constitutional function of the police to detect prevent, prevent and crime in the country in general and Idah in particular has become a subject of intense debate. The existence of a high crime rate appears to weight heavily against proponent of the debate. The purpose of this study is to situate this debate within a context that can provide empirical evidence of policing role in Idah. It intend to gain knowledge of the resident perception on the operation of the Nigeria police in Idah in crime prevention and control.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The Nigeria police force has duly of protecting the live and property of every Nigeria. In fact, any nation or society without an effective police organization is bound to be chaotic in character; such a society can be compared only to Hobbesian state nature where life was nasty, brutish and short or such place can be called, using Emile Durk Hein world an anomic society. The police are guardian of socials order as an institution. The force is expected to pressive, fortify and reproduce the prevailing social order (Alemika 1993). However, the Nigeria police force has been largely infective and inefficient in the performance of their duties, and this has however been largely attributed to lack of finance and inadequate equipment, insuffient manpower and training, lack of enough vehicle, and illiteracy among member of poor communication gadgets, out detail weapons, and poor relationship with the public in term to carrying out their duties of crime prevention and control in the society (Ikogno 2007).
Although the police are supposed to be recognized by the people as friend and protectors, they are not generally regarded as such, instead the public stimatize the police work because they believe it is associated with evil. Some each believe that the police collaborate with the men of the under world to create disorder in the society.
This is however created distrust between member of the public and the police. Against this background, many scholar believe that the police can not ensure justice in their dealing, with public (Nuhu, 1989:39) in term of equal enforcement of law. It is against the background that this study is carried out to examine the relationship between the Nigeria police force and member of the public of Idah.

1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
As a matter of fact, every study has its own, arms. This research study is carried to investigate the public perception on the Nigeria police force.
Below are of the basic Objectives of this study:
To identify the native of relationship between Nigeria police force and the member of the public in Idah.
To investigate the views of the member of the public toward the Nigeria police force.
To investigate the reason why the public perceive the Nigeria police the way they perceive.
To Identify ways of improving police performance in Idah metropolis.