ALTERNATIVE POLICE SYSTEM IN NIGERIA: A PREDICTIVE FRAMEWORK

1.1 Introduction

Police System allows police personnel to plan effectively for emergency response, determine mitigation priorities, analyze historical events, and predict future events. Police forces were established in response to threats to the social order and dominant interests of the dominant groups. Generally, police bureaucracies are organized to manage, detect, investigate, arrest, detain, prosecute, haras, e.t.c those considered to be dangerous, miscreant and threat to the preservation of the status quo. To enable the police officers to perform their functions diligently, they are granted power to use force and violence atimes. The public resentment against the police powers may be traced to the effect of those powers and authorities as well as their misuse power by the police. The initial hospitality between the police and the public in Nigeria is intense.

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

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1.2 Background of Study

Since the 1990s, the attention of the world population has shifted to redefining security and looking for the best approach that could guarantee effective security management, different from the traditional ones that had failed to address the increasing security threats. The search for the best approach led to the emergence of the community policing approach. National security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the state through the use of economic, security operatives especially police, political power and the exercise of diplomacy.

The concept developed mostly in the United States of America after World War II focusing on the police and military might. Now, it encompasses a broad range of facets, all of which impinge on the police and military for economic security of the nation, lives property and values protected by national society. Accordingly, in order to possess national security, a nation needs to possess economic security, energy security, environmental security, etc. Security threats involve not only conventional foes such as other national states but also non state factors such as violent non-state actors, narcotic cartels, multinational corporations and non-governmental organizations; some authorities include natural disasters and events causing severe environmental change in this category.

The origin of the modern concept of “national security” as a philosophy of maintaining a stable nation state can be traced to the peace of Westphalia, wherein the concept of a sovereign state, ruled by a sovereign, became the basis of a new international order of nation states. As an academic concept, national security can be seen as a recent phenomenon which was first introduced in the United States after World War II, and has to some degree replaced other concepts that describe the struggle of states to overcome various external and internal threats. The struggle of states to overcome various external and internal threats, the earliest mention of the term national security, however, was made in Yale University in 1790 wherein was made to its relation with domestic industries.

The concept of the national security became an official guiding principle of foreign policy in the United States when the National security Act of 1947 was signed on July 26, 1947 by the U.S. President Harry S. Truman. Together with its 1949 amendment, this act create American national security d important facets for American national security as the precursor to the department of defense, subordinated the security operatives branches to the new cabinet level position of the secretary of defense, established the National Security council and the Central Intelligence Agency. The Act did not define national security which was conceivably advantageous as it’s ambiguity made it a powerful phrase to invoke whenever issues threatened by other interests of the state, such as domestic concerns, came up for discussion and decision making.

Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to examine the predictive framework for combating crime and conflict management alternative police system.

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1.3 Statement of Problems

Investigation revealed that police system has always played a vital role in the stability of a nation. Keeping security information manually can hinder some defense program and delay passage of security information to the appropriate body. Manual documentation of security information can lead to exposure of the information thereby creating threat to the nation at large. Hence, there is need for an automated Database Security System to guaranty safety of information.

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1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to examine the predictive framework for combating crime and conflict management alternative police system in Nigeria. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To examine the alternative police system contribution towards national security
2. To determine the relationship between combating crime and conflict management
3. To investigate the factors affecting predictive framework for combating crime and conflict management in police system
4. To proffer solution to the problems of the alternative police system in Nigeria

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1.5 Research Questions

The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:

• Are there relationship between combating crime and conflict management?
• Are there factors affecting predictive framework for combating crime and conflict management in police system?
• What is the alternative police system contribution towards national security?

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1.6 Research Hypothesis

In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.

Hypothesis One

• H0: There is no significant relationship between combating crime and conflict management
• H1: There is a significant relationship between combating crime and conflict management

Hypothesis Two

• H0: There are no significant factors affecting predictive framework for combating crime and conflict management
• H1: There are significant factors affecting predictive framework for combating crime and conflict management

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1.7 Significance of Study

The study will help the police and the masses to get useful information on individuals with crime records. This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.

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1.8 Scope of Study

The scope of the research is focused on the predictive framework for combating crime and conflict management alternative police system in Nigeria.

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1.9 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
3. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
4. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

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1.10 Definition of Terms

Policing: Policing is another way of depicting the police.

Anti-policing: Anti-policing is the society’s social attitude opposed to war between states and in particular countering arguments based on policism.

National Security: The requirement to maintain the survival of the nation-state through the use of economic, policing, and political power and the exercise of diplomacy.

Information Security: Means protecting information and information systems from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, perusal, inspection, recording, or destruction.

Classified Information: Is sensitive information to which the access is restricted by law or regulation to particular groups of persons.

Security Management: Is a broad field of management related to asset management, physical security and human resource safety functions.