The police say progress has been made in strengthening community trust, improving communication, and enhancing accountability through the Mutual Accountability and Community Scorecard Initiative.

This was disclosed by the force’s spokespersons across the states during a two-day workshop on building trust and promoting police reforms in Akwa Ibom, organised by International Alert in collaboration with the police. The workshop was supported by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

The community scorecard is a social accountability tool that allows service seekers and security and justice providers to assess, reflect, relate, and collaborate. 

This has become important against the backdrop of a lack of trust stemming from past negative interactions, alleged corruption, or perceived bias.

Benjamin Hundeyin, the police’s national spokesman, said the workshop was a continuation of a shared journey between the police and International Alert aimed at strengthening the relationship between the force and the community it served.

Mr Hundeyin explained that the first phase of the project gave the police a clear message on communication and collaboration.

He said that it was the duty of police image makers to bridge the understanding gap, communicate with empathy, and show through their actions that the police force was prepared to serve and protect with integrity.

Mr Hundeyin further explained that the current Police Act 2020 addressed the concerns that pitched the police against the community, particularly the youth, like issues of stereotyping, bail, arrest, search of persons, and arrest by proxy, among others.

He, therefore, appealed to youths to take time to go through the Act to know what to do whenever their rights were being violated.

Mr Hundeyin said the police had not only strengthened its personnel and units but also created the complaint response units across all commands for easy access to the police. 

He urged Nigerians to visit the police’s website to get the phone numbers and contacts of all the spokespersons to seek redress, among other purposes.

(NAN)