The Inspector-General of Police (I-G), Mr Kayode Egbetokun has called on Commissioners of Police (CPs) and other Strategic Police Managers to deepen their intelligence frameworks beyond professional reporting lines.
The I-G made the call on Thursday in Abuja at a conference with the strategic police managers, consisting of officers from the rank of CP and above.
“The fight against violent crime is one first in the field of intelligence. We must build systems that see crime before it erodes.
“I hereby direct all commands, CPs to deepen your intelligence frameworks beyond professional reporting lines.
“A dependable, native intelligence network is not built only on desk officers.
“It is built inside markets, transport unions, student leadership circles, farming clusters, religious institutions, and trusted community observers.
“Look at intelligence networks when communities trust the police.
“Therefore, their participation must be lawful, ethical, professional, and protected,” he said.
The I-G urged the senior officers to train their intelligence assets on confidentiality obligations and without exposure to political or social manipulation.
According to him, as senior commanders, you must deploy intelligence response cells that analyse lookup patterns, interpret successfully attack indicators, map crime migration corridors, and push intelligence systems to place that purpose.
“Information without action is not intelligence.
“Actionable information deployed ahead of crime is intelligence and so, this network must also integrate open source intelligence awareness.
“It must also, integrate forensic enabled investigative tracking, rural informant engagement, cyber intelligence monitoring of criminal black traits, and tactical intelligence retrieval after every attack.
“Each major incident should generate an intelligence packet that depicts not just who attacked, but who may be next,” he said.
He said community policing was not ancillary to national security, but a foundational to it, especially at this time where communities were no longer just witnesses to crime, but victims of coordinated assaults.
Egbetokun urged the CPs to police frameworks that structurally bind the police to grassroots influence networks, traditional rulers, town unions, local hunters, civil defence advocates, vigilante groups and youth organisations.
“Engaging community policing means building local shared ownership of security.
“Not delegating authority to non-police advocates. You must ensure that police are not just witnesses.
“Establish joint community safety forums. Conduct community threat profiling.
“Naturalise local crime watch desks and build village-level rapid information channels that signal the police before criminals’ classified positions.
“This is how threat is identified. Not by occupying only highways, but by occupying the confidence, cooperation and communication channels inside the people’s spaces,” he said.
According to him, when this system works, communities recover first from fear, then from crime and feed information freely, respond to police direction willingly, grant operational legitimacy faster, and discourage criminals socially.
