Roles of Community and Police in Implementation of Community Policing: What Are The Levels of Partnership Between the Community and the Police in Community Policing in Teso South, Busia, Kenya?

Abstract

Community policing is a relatively underdeveloped area of social research especially in Kenya. Previous research findings have indicated that weak informal social controls and low capacity to mobilize formal external resources such as law enforcement agencies generates crime. In attempting to explain why some places have weak informal social controls, and therefore prone to criminality than others, researchers have illuminated the poor levels of partnerships between the police and the community. Both the community and the police have a role to play in keeping their partnership effective and collective action has been found to be more successful in some places than others. However, no substantial research efforts have been directed towards exploring the perceived levels of police-community partnership in steering social action required by community policing. The study utilized data collected from 108 respondents who were police officers and the community members with the aim of interrogating and assessing the prospects for community policing in Teso South based on a review of community police partnership in Kenya. It is intended that this research will expose how the prospects and limitations of police-citizen partnerships in Teso south sub-county makes the local security achievement and the success of community policing a toll order.