Citizens’ Assistance and Satisfaction with Community Policing in Crime Control in Ishielu Local Government Area, Ebonyi State, South-East, Nigeria

The Nigeria police have been since inception bedeviled with myriads of challenges in the course of discharging their roles of crime prevention and control. They have also lost public trust because of their high-handedness and other inhuman treatment in dealing with the public. To mend fences and ensure public acceptability, the Nigeria police reviewed series of strategies which include community policing in crime control. To this end, this paper examined Citizens’ Assistance and Satisfaction with Community Policing in Crime Control in Ishielu Local Government Area, Ebonyi State, South-East, Nigeria. Ishielu L.G.A has a total population of one hundred and fifty-two thousand, five hundred and eighty-one (NPC, 2006), while the target population studied are the adult residents who have attained the age of 18years and above. The study is anchored on social bond theory. The study adopted mixed methods design. The sample size of 349 was generated using Fisher Lang, Stockel and Townsend method of determining sample size. The multi-stage sampling procedure was adopted in selecting respondents for the study. Questionnaire schedule was used to collect quantitative data while in-depth interviews were used to collect qualitative data. The quantitative data were processed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Windows, Version 17. Also, descriptive statistics like frequency distribution tables, simple percentages and graphic illustrations were used to analyze the quantitative data while manual content analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data. Findings of the study indicate that majority of the citizens are ready and willing to assist police in their effort to control crime. They also indicated high level of satisfaction with police services since they cooperate with members of the community in crime control. The study therefore recommended among others that the police and members of the public’s willingness to participate in activities that would ensure community safety should be seen and not mere media reports. Also, the police should eschew those behaviours that discourage the public from working with them.