The Head of the Police Complaint Response Unit has said that the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, plans to bridge the gap between the police and the citizens by introducing the multi-platform community based complaint reporting mechanism.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, CPS Yomi Shogunle said that the newly established Complaint Response Unit by the IGP was a Customer Service Centre. “The public we serve are like a customer and the unit gets to hear from the clients”.
Highlighting retrospective events when the police won’t get to a robbery scene on time which had over the years, reduced the confidence placed in them by the citizens, Mr Shogunle said that most of the comments people refer to, about the Nigeria Police Force, were historical complaints; which were things that had happened in the past.
He, however, said that as soon as people place a call to the police, they would be at any scene to perform their duties in ‘real time’, which according to him is part of the steps which have been put in place to ensure that people will not complain about the police getting to the scene of crimes late.
The Head of the Police Complaint Response Unit, however, gave exclusive details about what the unit entails.
“Basically, the kind of complaints we expect from members of the public are ones that have to do with unprofessional conducts of police officers, certain police actions, regular complaints against other citizens.
“At the moment, we have seven different platforms through which citizens can lay their complaints”, he stressed.
Unprofessional Practices And Conduct
Expounding further on the seven platforms, Mr Shogunle said: “We have two dedicated phone lines which are available 24/7 for both calls and text messages, Whatsapp, Black Berry Messenger, Emails, Facebook and Twitter.
“Every complaint has a tracking number which is randomly generated by the computer system. All complaints would be acknowledged by the unit,” he said.
He further stressed that the initiative of the Complaint Response Unit showed the police as an institution that was not in support of unprofessional practices and conduct.
“The platform makes the Nigeria police accountable to the citizens and giving the avenue for citizens to get in touch, state their grievances in order to resolve them all.
“There is a passion in officers and men of the police force which had made the police force the dream of many Nigerians,” he maintained.
Knowing Your Neighbour
Giving his opinion about how much ‘Knowing Your Neighbour’ initiative by the police has helped in curbing crimes in Lagos State, Mr Shogunle said that unfortunately, based on the Nigerian Police Force’s observation, citizens do not know much about people living around them.
“The police force have seen instances where landlords don’t even know who their tenants are.
“The police force, knowing all these leakages, is trying to encourage citizens to ensure that they get to know who stays next to them”.
While talking about how well the force had been able to handle complaint from citizens, Mr Shogunle said that policing activities was one of the visible activities in the world that required the input of every individual.
“Policing activity is a daily activity that many citizens get to see either directly or indirectly,” he added.
