CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1    BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
          The relationship between police and citizens must be informed by the ethical and professional principles that allow for the effectiveness of their function. One of the challenges to community police units is to maintain peace and. When Law is violated, crime has been committed. This study seeks to focus on the Law Enforcement Agency (Nigeria Police Force) in crime control and prevention. The law enforcement agency in the real sense of the term according to Iwarimie-Jaja (1991:74), refers to criminal justice agency (federal, state or local) which perform the principal functions of prevention, and the apprehension of alleged offenders. By enforcement of the law Nigeria Police Force reflect the ideological interest and priority desired by the controllers of the state as observable in intractable competitions.
          Throughout the length and breadth of our nation Thompson (1986), posted that innocent citizens are gripped with the fear of armed men, hoodlums, and vagabonds who perpetrate their evil with reckless abandon.
          Our society has ever since been witnessing an unprecedented upsurge of criminal activities ranging from conventional, victimless to white-collar crime, especially “pen-robbery” which is now almost institutionalized. Any nation plagued with this magnitude of social problem which people sign as they pass by make comments like it’s too bad, will no doubt look for solutions. It is on this basis that Nigeria Police Force has come to stay.
          According to Ogunleye (1976:250, duties of the police are defined in section 4 of the Police Act as “the prevention and detection of crime, the apprehension of offenders, the preservation of law and order, the regrettable, it is only the latter that law easily punishes because of their vulnerability whereas the former is let go with impunity.
          Up till now the public fails to acknowledge the fact that the role of the police in our society is the defence of the right and property of the bourgeois, consequently, the police has been singled out as escape goat for all the ill of the society. It is from the context of the corrupt society we all belong that allegation of inefficiency and corruption consequently levelled against the Nigeria Police be viewed.
1.2    STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
          In Nigeria today, the problem of Insecurity has risen to its highest level, corruption, crime, communal disturbances as in the case of the recent Communal Killings of Farmers by the Fulani Herdsmen, religious intolerance and the likes in Nigeria is a cause for serious concern. What nation loses as a result of violation of criminal law cannot be quantified. Not only is the economy dragged to the base continually, the image of the nation will need a great quantity of detergent to be laundered both home and abroad.
          Therefore, the important questions are: How do we rid crime out of our society? Could it be controlled or prevented? What are its remote causes? The police have made series of efforts aimed at controlling and preventing crime yet not much has been achieved.
          Many people have lost their lives, property, money and even intangible things such as reputation, joy, peace due to crime they committed or those of others. Could the inability of the police to achieve a crime free society be attributed to the socio-economic structure of our society, absence of sophisticated equipments to combat crime, poor communication network, outright bribery/corrupt practices among the police? Hence, these questions put low the integrity of the police and places one in a valley of indecision as to whether the Nigeria Police Force has the interest of the nation at heart.