By Olusola Fabiyi, Abuja
Nigeria will consider the adoption of some community policing and safe-city models of the Israeli Police in view of the similarities between it and the Nigeria Police Force.
[punchng.com] Minister of Police Affairs, Dr. Ibrahim Lame, said this when he led a delegation to meet with the Israeli Minister of Public Security, Mr. Yitzhak Aharonovitch, in Tel Aviv.
The minister, who was accompanied by the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Ogbonna Onovo, was also quoted as saying that Nigeria acknowledged the high level of competence of the Israeli Police and hope that cooperation between the two countries could impact positively on Nigeria’s current rudimentary capacity.
A statement by the minister’s Chief Press Secretary, Mr. James Odaudu, quoted the minister as saying that though Nigeria had its unique challenges such as the Niger Delta militancy, armed robberies, communal conflicts and the recent emergence of kidnap-for-ransom incidents; such models could be adopted to meet these challenges.
Lame was also said to have told the Israeli minister that Nigeria was giving special attention to the improvement of internal security by placing emphasis on developing the efficiency of its police force.
This, he said, was being done through the adoption of strategies which involved police reforms, community policing and the Seven City Crime Prevention and Control.
On their mission, Lame told the Israeli officials that he was in Israel to, among other things, understudy the successes and challenges of implementing community policing and intelligence-led policing strategies as practised by Israel.
He also said the delegation’s visit would enable them study how the deployment of technology could support the implementation of Nigeria’s Seven City Crime Prevention and Control Strategy.
The statement reads, “Also speaking at the occasion, Onovo said as security officials, they had realised the pressing need to develop criminal intelligence, as police visibility and deterrence is no longer enough to fight crime.
“The police, according to him, require the expertise to gather information, analyse the data to create the intelligence that would be used to combat crime, pre-empt and attack or arrest.
In his response, Aharonovitch informed the delegation that the State of Israel has one national police force with much emphasis on fighting terrorist activities at the expense of traditional policing which was informed by their training and experience in terror activities, bomb disposal, forensics and modern technology to fight crime.
“Israel has a border police that is also involved in maintaining internal security through the prevention and control of terrorist activities while the army does not deal with internal crime,” the Israeli minister said.
He further informed the delegation that Israel had embraced the Safe City Project which had been rolled out in 12 cities and that it involved partnerships with other agencies and city Mayors and coordinated by the Ministry.
The project, he said, involved the deployment of Close Circuit televisions in the cities and their management done through a command and control centre.
According to him, the aim of the project which was similar to the one being embarked upon by Nigeria, adding that it would bring down the crime rate and create a sense of safety in the selected cities and that more cities would be included this year, considering the level of success it has recorded.
He promised to assist the Nigerian authorities in the execution of the Seven City project.
Among places visited by the Police Affairs Minister and his delegation were the National Headquarters of the Israel Police, the Israel Police CCTV Command and Control Centre in the Old City of Jerusalem, Israel Military Industries, Israel Weapons Industries, Motorola Israel Limited, Safe City – Ashkelon and the Septier Company where they were introduced to the Septier Location Tracking Solution which intercepts, collects, analyzes and retains location data arriving from cellular and packet-based networks.
The system according to Lame would be useful to Nigeria in controlling the worrisome cases of kidnap-for-ransome.
Source: http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art20100112310264
