The Nigeria Police Forensic Investigation Failure
Noel Otu* and O Oko Elechi
Department of Criminal Justice, The University of Texas, USA
Submission: May 09, 2018;Published: May 22, 2018
*Corresponding author: Noel Otu, Department of Criminal Justice, The University of Texas, USA
How to cite this article: Noel Otu. The Nigeria Police Forensic Investigation Failure. J Forensic Sci & Criminal Invest. 2018; 9(1): 555752. DOI:10.19080/JFSCI.2018.09.555752.
Abstract
Cyber-crime, kidnapping, armed robbery, terrorism, fraud, corruption, etc. are some of the new types of crimes plaguing Nigerian society presently. The Nigerian Police, the governmental agency with the primary responsibility for combating crime, and maintaining law and order in the society seems ill-equipped, and lacking the requisite skills, manpower and morale for adequately responding to Nigeria’s crime problem. Many commentators have therefore referred to Nigeria as one of the most dangerous places in the world, and some even describe Nigeria as a failed state. The primary role of government is the safeguarding of people, property and the maintenance of law and order in society. The Police are the agency charged with this onerous responsibility. The Police failure in the maintenance of law and order in the society raises questions about the effectiveness and legitimacy of the government. Findings from this study support the characterization of policing in Nigeria as “going dark” and recommend the federal government’s massive funding of the police to bring it into the 21st century policing outfit. The federal government should make it a priority to enhance police capacity building, intelligence-information gathering, forensic skills and its democratic policing capability.
Keywords: Nigeria Police; Forensic Investigation; Culture; Technology and Policing
Introduction
Nigeria is a country in West Africa with an estimated population of 182.6 million people. It is made up of multiple, diverse ethnic groups, which creates its own challenging social control problems [1]. The colonization of Nigeria by the British started in the 1800s. If it was the goal of the British to create a melting pot with the diverse ethnic groups and cultures, this is yet to materialize. However, on some level the British succeeded in creating a common language for the country -broken English-but the introduction of effective social control mechanism is yet to be accomplished [1]. This paper traces the social control evolution of Nigeria from its amalgamation in 1914, which resulted in the bringing together of east, west, northern parts of the area to create one country - Nigeria. It is understandable that joining together three separate regions with different languages, belief systems, customs, etc., would create complex social control needs. The federalism introduced in Nigeria by the British consisted of the distribution of authority (Indirect Rule) between native power figures and the colonial government. On paper, the social control apparatus was to be shared between the colonial administrators and the native authority, however, in practice, the opposite was the case.
For example, the Native Authorities Ordinance of 1901, the Native Court Ordinance of 1902, and the Native Revenue Ordinance of 1904 were enacted to make it seem that the natives were full and active participants in their governance. Ultimately, all of the ordinances were amended to reflect the diverse participating authorities until independence in 1960 [2,3]. The Nigerian Police Force has gone through several reforms since 1960. Its effectiveness, however, remains a matter of concern to both the people and the government. In 1964, Nigerians assumed full control and leadership of the Nigeria Police when Mr. Louis Orok Edet was appointed the first indigenous Inspector General of Police. Since then, eighteen Nigerians, including the current Inspector General, Mr. Ibrahim Kpotun Idris, have served in this capacity. It is arguable that the frequent government changes often through military coups are partly to blame for the weakness and ineffectiveness of the Nigeria Police Force. Today, the Nigeria Police Force is comprised of about 371,000 personnel, among which are the good, the bad, and the ugly officers, with the last two forming a greater percentage of the whole [4].
Problem Statement
There are many challenges confronting the Nigeria Police today, chief among which is that the police is yet to overcome its perception by the generality of the people as unfriendly and untrustworthy. Other problems facing the police include its image as a corrupt, brutal and ineffective organization and “going dark.”“Going dark” is a term used to signify the decreasing ability of the police to lawfully (forensically) access and examine digital evidence at rest and evidence in motion due to technical and non-technical barriers [5]. Policing under the best of circumstances is a big challenge. Policing a country such as Nigeria going through enormous political, economic, and social problems, including entrenched poverty, massive rural to urban migration, high level of unemployment and wide income disparities, it is a different matter. Understandably, Nigeria has a major crime problem. Above all, the perception both within and outside the country is that Nigeria is a dangerous place. For example, kidnapping, armed robbery, murder, and terrorism are some of the major problems that are facing the nation [1].
According to newspaper reports and police records, from January 2008 to June 2009, Nigeria had a total of 512 kidnappings with the deaths of 30 victims [6]. Nigeria is today considered a “kidnapping country” by many Nigerians as well as by those in other countries. On August 31, 2012, the Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Muhammad Indabawa, told a news conference that “13 policemen were killed by robbers between April and August 2012 and the police killed 36 armed robbers and kidnappers, and rescued 17 kidnap victims during the period,”-just in Rivers State alone [7]. Although, it is important to note that in Akwa Ibom State in 2016, during the administration of His Excellency Governor Udom Emmanuel, they had the lowest crime rate in the country, and kidnapping and killings werenonexistent compared to other states and previous years [8]. Nevertheless, the fear of crime and conditions of lawlessness in Nigeria are increasing at an alarming rate.
While all of the above problems/crimes certainly carry their own importance, this study hypothesizes that the most important and urgent problem Nigeria Police face today is its inability to properly investigate crimes using forensic sciences. The Nigeria Police are attempting to control crime and restore feelings of security, but grave consequences present themselves from sloppy investigation work, which sometimes results in innocent individuals being convicted and imprisoned. In many situations, lack of forensic investigation skills has led to investigating the wrong people based on false informants, bad snitches, a sloppy collection of evidence, and false confession or false admission. As mentioned earlier, Nigeria is a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, and multi-linguistic nation, and therefore the police face many challenges; in addition to the fact that some are corrupt in their enforcement of the laws that have been made by corrupt law makers, they deal with being underequipped and underpaid on all levels.
It is common knowledge that appropriate policing tools are needed to replace the current, ineffective, and poorly trained officers. The former Inspector General of Police (IG), Solomon Arase, emphasized that modern policing is driven by the application of technology, forensic science, intelligence and citizens’ consent [9]. According to [10]. Nigeria Police recorded a total of 1,072,026 cases between1996 and 2000. Of these, 462,058, or 43.1 percent, of the cases were prosecuted while 540,899, or 50.5 percent, were either under-investigation, undetected, or unsolved [11].The general truth here is that 51.0 percent of all cases are under-investigated, undetected, or closed for want of evidence [10].This factis the result of issues such as those mentioned which have cultivated the call for reconstruction of the forensic investigation experts within the Nigeria Police.
The governor of the Akwa Ibo State of Nigeria, His Excellency Odom Emmanuel, has repeatedly called for change in the policing system in Nigeria. Emmanuel states, “Officers serving in their states of origin should not be left to stay too long in their state to avoid compromise in carrying out their duty.”He acknowledged that the Akwa Ibo State is one of the most peaceful states in the country and called on the police to sustain their tempo of crime fighting [12]. The failure of police to properly investigate crime in Nigeria is a serious problem in the country and has resulted in citizens living in fear of being victimized by criminals. The general insecurity and the inability of the police to properly investigate crime have grave consequences resulting in a high rate of armed robberies, kidnappings, and other crimes. There are very many prominent Nigerians, from politicians to business people to academicians to ordinary civil servants, calling for police officers to be trained for the 21st century policing methods, including general forensics and digital forensic investigation and analysis.
It is common knowledge that all 36 state governors of Nigeria agree that the violence in the country would best be tackled with modern forensic investigation tools [13]. All Nigerians agree that the present policing system is overburdened, overstretched, illequipped, and unsuitable for policing a country of Nigeria’s size, population, modernity, diversity, and complexity , There may be different opinions about what to add to or change in the present system, but there is consensus that serious forensic police training is needed for the protection of both life and property in Nigeria. An old saying is that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. This is especially true in trying to better understand the present need for forensic investigation training for the police system. History tells us that Nigeria Police developed in a way similar to the London Metropolitan Police. The difference, however, is that the Nigeria Police have not kept up with changes that have taken place both in the Metropolitan Police and/or in the criminal world.
Studies on the evolution and the role of colonial police in Nigeria found that the police force established by the colonialists coexisted with the local administration of police forces and was good enough during that era [14]. The primary purpose of the police force was to be a part of the community and to police known citizens. Today, the police have a responsibility to police both known and unknown sophisticated, technologically smart criminals. A major strategy that is expected to function well in Nigeria is crime prevention and control based on complete police accountability to the public, and the acquisition of knowledge of forensic technology investigation methods. The need for Nigeria Police to be trained in forensic technology cannot be over emphasized in today’s world. In addition, Nigerians must understand that crime is a natural condition of society in need of being reduced, not eliminated. Hence, the public should not be deluded into believing that training police officers in forensic technology will totally eliminate crime.
Literature Review
It is not surprising that the literature on Nigeria Police issues has failed to address the lack of forensic technology skills as a separate problem. Despite the need for research on forensic technology, a review of the literature found that not many studies focused either partly or entirely on forensic investigation within the Nigeria Police. In general, prior research on Nigeria Police issues has concentrated on reforming the entire police force for better performance and creating another different police system [1]. [15,16]. The inefficiency of the present police force to tackle emerging high tech crimes has led many researchers to call for a change from the present centralized policing to a decentralized, or balanced, community policing philosophy. The centralized police model is believed to be a danger to personnel freedom and a threat to discretionary judgments of the front-line personnel, while the decentralized model is believed to be accompanied by an extraordinary degree of conflicting jurisdictional duplication and inefficiency [1,15,17].
Although the Balanced Policing Model allows the police to understand the cultural diversity of the community they serve, it emphasizes group differences; but that is not the entire problem facing the Nigeria police today. Also, a community policing philosophy recommended by some researchers has a draw-back of allowing major law-enforcement decisions to be made by untrained, unqualified, and inexperienced line personnel [1,18].
It should also be noted that there are variations across countries that utilize one or another of these models, but this study focuses on the failure of forensic technology in investigating crime by the Nigeria Police. The need for forensic investigation is to collect facts that can be used as evidence in the court to prove the guilt or innocence of an accused person. According to [19]. criminal investigation is a major challenge of policing in Nigeria. The most significant advances in criminal investigation have been the development of forensic technology. While forensic investigation has been working perfectly in advanced countries like the U.S. and the UK to solve millions of crimes, the Nigerian case is a failure. It is clearly understood that the centralized policing model of the Nigeria police allows the federal government to have a great amount of power and may interfere in local issues, which may result in insufficient funding for forensic technology equipment for investigation.
Centralized policing emphasizes rules over trust, command over discretion, and ends over means; consequently, the toptier officers are overwhelmed with orders, conflicting work assignments, overlapping jurisdictional work demands, and less funding with which subordinates must comply [18]. According to [1] Governor [18,20] and the findings of this study, a centralized policing model with a lack of forensic technology has not and will not serve Nigeria well. Although the Nigeria problem may include centralization of the police system, the major flaw in the system is the absence of forensic technology. We have to start with forensic technology. As practiced in the United States, [21] states that the U.S. has what may be the most decentralized police model in the world in that it allows every community to run its own police department. According to [17] the decentralized police model provides more flexibility in service delivery, as well as more local control and special training for local needs.
It reduces national corruption, promotes customized enforcement efforts, and reduces costs and national interference in local issues (p. 2). Australia is also an example of a decentralized police system with federal political structures, but they have attempted to move away from the decentralized/fragmented system [21]. India is another country with a decentralized police system, with various states and main cities that have different police forces with their own specific fractures, making for a complex policing structure. The decentralized police model is characterized by an extraordinary degree of duplication of assignments, overlapping jurisdictions, and the creation of local “untouchables,” allowing local politicians to commit some crimes with impunity [21]. It is very clear that a decentralized/ fragmented system alone would not be a perfect system for solving the forensic failure problem in Nigeria. There are ideas that Nigeria needs a state police, but advocates of state police have to understand that adding or creating a state police force out of necessity and not by design to fit the multi-ethnic and multi-cultural nature of Nigeria and provide forensic technology skills for the police to conduct proper criminal investigation would be disastrous.
Even former President Good luck Jonathan and current Vice President Osinbajo believe that it is a good idea to reform the policing system and said respectively that “there were ongoing efforts by the Federal Government to reform the criminal justice system in Nigeria” [22]. And “presently we have to be careful on how we go about it” [23]. Also, community policing is one of the more popular approaches to modern policing, asset alters the basic philosophy of policing [24]. Advocates of community policing worldwide-and especially in the U.S.-believe that this is a new era in policing. It reduces the fear of crime and increases the feeling of safety, and it promotes positive feelings toward the police department as a whole (The Police Foundation, 1981). The above statement may apply to the United States but not Nigeria, where forensic investigation is a total failure. Communityoriented policing may be defined as a philosophy that promotes organizational strategies which support the systematic use of partnership and problem-solving techniques to proactively address the immediate conditions that give rise to public safety issues such as crime, social disorder, and fear of crime (USDOJ, COPS website, 2011).
Also, [25] states that community policing stems from the same idea as team policing, which is rooted in the belief that the traditional officers on the beat will bring the police and the public closer together and will work to reduce the despair of poverty (p. 11). It is the belief of advocates of community policing that it allows officers to devote considerable time to performing “social” work-i.e., working independently and creatively on solutions to the problems encountered on their beats [40]. Community policing, often called simply “foot patrol,” has major weaknesses, such as a lack of mobility, poor response time, and above all inadequate or inconsistent supervision [26,27]. According to [25] the lack of planning is a major problem for community policing. Despite widespread acceptance of community policing in the U.S., many police administrators have been reluctant to support community policing because it requires officers on the street to exercise quite a bit of discretion and authority [28].
It is also known that many police administrators still believe that the traditional crime-fighting model is more effective than the community policing strategy. Personnel evaluation is very difficult to conduct under community based policing because, unlike traditional police performance indicators such as calls handled and arrests made, community policing performance indicators are such things as creativity and problem solving efforts, which are difficult to measure [25]. Lack of efficiency and the potential for corruption are also two serious weaknesses of community policing. A key component of community policing is foot patrolling, but this is labor intensive and not cost effective, which is why it was abandoned generations ago. In addition, it must be understood that decentralization and permanent assignment are recipes for corruption [25]. In Nigeria, bribery and corruption are endemic, and community policing requires the exercise of enormous discretion, which is historically not plausible. According to the country’s former president, Good luck Jonathan, community policing will create instability to such an extent that what we are witnessing now will be “child’s play” [23]. All of the factors above would not solve the problem of forensic investigation technology failure in the Nigeria Police.
Study Methodology
This study used qualitative methods based on the belief that they are the most appropriate for gathering exploratory data. The data collection technique used is called triangulation, which is a combination of different methods to explore research hypotheses. Several issues were of importance in the use of triangulation in this study, including the sampling of research materials, interviewing my colleagues, and analysis of information. Triangulation enhances validity because it involves the understanding that social phenomena are numerous, and thus the current study manipulates more than one phenomenon [29].This study carefully reviewed all the technology that is either currently in use or that is needed by Nigeria Police at state and federal levels, relevant primary and secondary sources of information, including microfilmed documents concerning the early history of the British presence in Nigeria, different stages of reforms, and the current methods of combating crime.
Numerous manuscripts and books have been published on the modern condition of policing in Nigeria. These and other records were thoroughly analyzed and interpreted for their connection to the subject matter of this research, but we could not find the presence or use of any “modern” forensic technology labs anywhere in the country. Although former Inspector General Solomon Arase did inaugurate some equipment in June 2016 at the Police Force headquarters for traditional scientific investigation, those tools are very outdated as far as modern policing and crime investigation are concerned [9]. In addition to all of the documents analyzed, the author’s personal experience of more than 25 years in Nigeria, which corresponds with some of the records, and supports the fact that the Nigeria Police system is in need of forensic technology, proves not just a need for change but as well the ability to fight 21st century crime. Generally, the current study is designed to bring to light the technology that is needed by the police, and to characterize the positive impact of forensic technology on criminal investigation.
Theoretical Perspective
The approach and results of this study depend on, and are justified by, the 21stcentury technology and cybercrime and by the different issues explored in this study. The forensic investigation technology was developed in light of the failures of the old crime investigation methods, and the research utilizes the concept of “let [ting] punishment and treatment fit the culture” [30]. This concept argues that in order to make a social control mechanism (e.g. crime investigation) effective, the methods of operational dimension of the controlled (i.e. the offender) has to be fully considered-that is, we have to consider who is being policed and what their techniques are [30]. The concept of punishment according to culture explains that problem solving, community partnership, and good police work require that police understand the criminal’s method of operation within the communities they serve. Nigeria is a very high tech society with very high technological crimes and criminals. The premise underlying this endeavor is that the Nigeria Police cannot fully and accurately address high-tech crime with low-tech methods. This study found that a major factor in determining whether a nation’s police services are doing a good job depend on its ability to solve crime through complex criminal investigations, use of deductive skills, high-tech forensics, specialized computer programs, and hard work.
The Nigeria Police Force
The history of policing in Nigeria can be characterized as average, in terms of success or as a total failure, depending upon which measuring stick one chooses. On the one hand, the past three decades have witnessed the rise of violent crimes-armed robbery, murder, kidnapping, terrorism, etc. The country has seen an increase in the types of police forces that have been created by the federal government, including mobile police, road-safety police, yellow-uniformed traffic police, and state security services (SSS), etc. Unfortunately, Nigerians continue to suffer from a high rate of violent and high-tech crimes. The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) is known worldwide for excellence in its international assignments [31]. In 1960, the NPF won admiration as perhaps the best police force in the world during peacekeeping operations in the Congo at Brazzaville [31]. Onovostates that the NPF consecutively won the most prestigious prizes for peacekeeping operations in Namibia, the
Although the NPF has exceeded expectations at the international level, it is performing below expectations at home, and many Nigerians have cried out for police reform for the past thirty years. Unfortunately, reforming the Nigeria Police Force is like trying to revive a body after performing an autopsy [39]. It may be possible to refrigerate the dead body and keep it in the same condition, but it it highly unlikely that the body will breathe again on its own. The history of the NPF could be traced back to Lagos, the former federal capital, when the British colonial masters were ordered by their principal from London to establish a consular guard in April 1861, and in 1863 when the 30-man force became the “House Guard.” An ordinance was enacted in 1879 to create a Lagos Colony Constabulary. The force was created with only the Hausa ethnic group. It was called the “Hausa Constabulary” and was answerable to an Inspector General of Police [1,32].
According to [1] the Lagos Police Force was formed in 1896 and performed military and civil police duties similar to those of the Hausa Constabulary. While law enforcement was going on in Lagos and other Yoruba areas, additional parts of Nigeria did follow right behind. The Edo, Delta, Akwa lbom, Rivers, and Cross River states were policed by an armed constabulary headquartered at Caliber, and in northern Nigeria the Royal Niger Constabulary protected the people [32].
In about 1900, the Royal Niger Constabulary was divided into the Northern Nigeria Police Force and the Northern Nigeria Regiment, while the Lagos Police Force and the Niger Coast Constabulary became the Southern Nigeria Police Force and the Southern Nigeria Regiments [32]. Following the amalgamation of northern and southern Nigeria in 1914, and until April 1, 1930, these forces were merged to form the present Nigeria Police Force [1,32]. It is important to note that during the colonial rule, indirect rule was practiced as a means of reducing the cost of running the bureaucracy. Local police forces under the control of traditional rulers were established in addition to the centralized system [33]. A major police reform occurred after the amalgamation in 1914, as stated by [34]. The police powers given to the Native authorities after the 1914 amalgamation were therefore of greater relevance to western and northern Nigeria than to the south-eastern part of Nigeria.
As Native Authorities, the chiefs had their police powers extended and consolidated under the laws of 1916 and 1924. The Native Authority Ordinance (No. 4 of 1916) conferred on the native authorities the responsibility for maintaining order in their respective areas. Under it, they were allowed to prevent crime and arrest offenders by employing any person to assist them in carrying out their police duties. Their police powers increased under the protectorate (enforcement) Ordinance (No. 15 of 1924; p. 90). The Northern and Southern Nigeria Police Forces were amalgamated as the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) in 1930, which marked the beginning of a centralized police system in Nigeria. The two forces-the Nigeria Police Force and the native police forces—coexisted in Northern and Western Nigeria [33]. When Nigeria gained independence from Britain in 1960, the NPF was first regionalized and then nationalized. In the 1980s, the military Head of States General Babangida announced that police officers would be posted to their native states to encourage police-community interaction and cooperation in fighting crime.
In 1986 the NPF was reorganized again into seven area commands, with each command being under a Commissioner of Police. Then, in 1989, the NPF was reorganized yet again by creating a Quick-Intervention Force in each state to police political events and control unrest. In the 1990s, recruitment and promotion in the NPF were temporarily suspended by the military government, which resulted in low morale and a shortage of manpower [33]. It was not until 1999 that the military government handed over power to the elected government and a new constitution was adopted that made provision for the further reorganization of the NPF. However, there has been no major reorganization since the elected government took power. Currently, the NPF has 36 state commands and a federal capital territory (FCT) command, all headed by the Inspector General of Police, and these commands are grouped into 12 zonal commands headed by 12 Assistant Inspectors General of Police. As before, a Commissioner of Police heads each of the 36 state commands and the FCT commands 8.
According to [35] what is not in question about NPF is the fact that it needs urgent restructuring to become a healthy force, but many of the people calling for NPF reform seem not to remember that the NPF has gone through several reforms and reorganizations since the 1960s. This study finds that police reform has three interrelated components. The first involves accountability and integrity, the monitoring of misbehavior, and the promotion of ethical and professional behavior. The second component of police reform includes the police administrators’ strategies to manage personnel and effectively reduce crime, and to cultivate the feeling of safety and security in society. The third and final component is the need for the police and the community to work together, especially to combat crime through criminal investigation. Failure in the criminal investigation process can have serious consequences. This study finds that after many years of failure of different reforms and strategies, it is time to try something else, namely forensic investigation technology.
Forensic Science
History of forensic science dates back a thousand years ago, when the first use of criminal investigation techniques that can be comparable to contemporary methods were used in ancient Babylon. Literature shows that law enforcement officers were authorized by the Babylon king Hammurabi (1792-1750B.C) to take fingerprints of arrested people, (N/A, 1999). The first recorded use of fingerprints to assist in the solving of a crime was in China during the reign of the Qin Dynasty (221 to 206 B.C.) [36]. Forensic science is broadly classified as using fingerprinting in the application of scientific knowledge and technology of science to aid in the definition and enforcement of the law. This study sees forensic science as the examination of physical evidence such as body fluid, gun powder, finger print, etc., from the crime scene. Forensic science as a discipline has occurred relatively recently. The use of forensic science was initially resisted due to its obscure and esoteric nature [37,38].
It is common knowledge that the adoption of forensic science by the court system can be attributed to the Sherlock Holmes show created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930). The Sherlock Holmes show raised the profile of forensic science, and helped to publicize the knowledge that science and logic could assist in criminal investigation [37,39].The first major reason for the use of scientific evidence was to substantiate or contradict defense or prosecution theories and to reduce reliance on subjective eyewitness testimony [11]. this study presents the forensic investigation technique as it should coexist with Balanced Policing Model in the Republic of Nigeria’s Police Force. The Balanced Policing Model is a proactive philosophy and an organizationally decentralized strategic approach designed to solve the crime problem and eliminate the fear of crime through a police-and-community effort and through the civilianization of certain police duties by assigning them to community experts [1].
The Balanced Policing Model philosophy could be practiced anywhere in the world, but the operational technique must vary in accordance with the culture and needs of both the community and the police. According to former Nigerian President Good luck Jonathan, “Police from other parts of the country find it difficult to go into the waters, but for us who were born near the riverside, even in the night we can enter an ordinary canoe to go to anywhere and we feel that if we have our local police it will be better for us because our police can reach everywhere in our state” [23]. Also, former Akwa Ibom State Governor Godswill Akpabio states, “When you go to a community, everybody knows the next man in and out. So, they can easily report strange things they observe to the police. But if you bring someone who does not speak a language and understand a terrain to serve as a Police Commissioner, where will the start from?” [40]. Criminologists have long discussed how political culture influences and shapes the operation of political organizations, especially at the local level. Elazar (1975, pp. 13–16) identified three aspects of political culture that are particularly influential in shaping the operation of a political system:
a. The set of citizen perceptions of what goals are properly pursued through politics.
b. The kinds of people who become active in government and politics based on their established traditions.
c. The actual way in which the art of government (e.g. policing) is practiced as reflected in the structure and operation of the government.
The new crime investigation technique in Nigeria policing should be based on the “melting fat” concept of crime, as described by p [41]. He states that culture influences human behavior, and he argues that different fats melt at different temperatures and that if the temperature is incorrectly read, improper or unexpected responses will follow. The concept of “fat and temperature” represents the relationship between high-tech crimes and forensic investigation. If the tool of crime investigation is incorrectly or inappropriately applied, then chances of solving a crime are nonexistent [42-45]. The creation of forensic crime laboratories and the training of officers as forensic experts to conduct investigation are necessary and overdue in the Nigeria Police. Although, society is answerable to the kind of police it chooses to have, whether by choice, deliberation, power struggle, or total neglect, the fact remains that the Nigeria Police Force needs forensic investigation equipment and training to do its duty well.
Brief implementation plan
As a society, it is critical that Nigerian government ensure that the police have the tools they need to protect the public. Below is the list of recommended steps required for the creation and implementation of a forensic laboratory and the development of forensic experts to conduct successful 21st century crime investigation in Nigeria? The legislature should enact statutes allowing for the creation of a crime laboratory in every state.
a. The states should set up committees of experts to write implementation plans that are supported and determined by the immediate needs (i.e. types of crime) of the police.
b. The executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government should determine how and where forensic labs will be located. They need to prepare legislation that relates to evidentiary (forensic) collection.
c. The implementation plans and strategies should be made available to all police departments for review and input.
d. The plan needs to be refined, and corrections need to be made. The plan should indicate the training process, including which and where officers will be trained.
e. Trainee set criteria needs to be employed-educational level, familiarity with the sciences (chemistry, biology etc.), and knowledge of the community, etc.
f. The training (dominant collision) of senior administrators on the major characteristics of forensic sciences needs to be put into place [46-49].
g. The program needs to be pilot tested to see how it will operate in a real-life crime investigation.
h. Junior officers and first-line supervisors need to be trained on the principles and basic techniques.
i. Officials need to evaluate and make corrections to the pilot program.
j. Officials need to train all personnel on the necessary aspects of forensic investigation.
k. Officials need to start a full-scale development of forensic labs in all states.
l. The effect of the program on solving crime needs to be evaluated.
m. Mistakes, if any, need to be corrected and the program needs to be expanded to as many states as possible.
Conclusion
It should be expected that there will be pitfalls along with any progress made in the attempts to implement an unprecedented journey into uncharted territory. The aim of this research is to explain that crime is becoming more mobile and sophisticated, and that criminals move around constantly with increasingly better equipment and technology; Nigeria Police must keep pace with the changing nature of the criminal world. Crime is intrinsically linked to a changing technological world. The Nigeria Police must move with the time and innovation to stay ahead by incorporating forensic science into their investigation technique. This study reveals that unfortunately, the Nigeria Police hasn’t kept pace with technology, and this disconnect has created a huge public safety problem. The Nigeria Police are not presently able to investigate crime, access the evidence, or successfully prosecute suspects. The Nigeria Police have the legal authority, determination, and the human power to enforce the laws, but they lack the technical ability to do so. In the 21st century, long-term technological and forensic solutions to Nigeria’s crime problem must be employed.
The question is: which police model will be appropriate for Nigeria to employ forensic sciences, considering the culture, the diverse ethnicities and ideologies, and other factors, notwithstanding the fact that decentralized/community policing was instituted under the name “indirect rule” and did not work well? Also, the centralized model practiced presently is falling apart. Considering the difficulties that lay ahead with regard to implementing this new program into a policing style that has existed for many years, this study recommends that the Balanced Policing Model (Otu, 2012) would be most beneficial. We should not deny the clear fact that we cannot police a community and conduct forensic investigations well if we do not speak the local language or know the culture;, Balanced Policing Model is the most appropriate route to follow. This study is not seeking to expand police powers, but rather to ensure that evidence authorized by the law is accessible and available when needed.
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