SUMMARY
Police are organized to defend and preserve the interests of the dominant groups and classes in society. Consequently, the significance of police as either facilitators or inhibitors of pro-poor change initiatives will depend on the character of their society. In a totalitarian and economically inequitable society, police role will be more to defend the status quo of political oppression and economic injustice. In contrast, in a democratic society the police are more likely to provide services that will enhance development and democracy. The police is the principal agency charged with the responsibility of internal peace and security of nations. In Nigeria, the Nigerian Police Force is constitutionally and legally empowered to police the country for peace and security. But the policing in Nigeria is bedeviled with a lot of challenges. Scholars and practitioners have identified the challenges facing the policing in Nigeria. They include the problems of funding, increasing crime wave, poor training, 67 corruption within and outside the police, lack of involvement of citizens in policing, poor public image, lack of inter-service and agency co-operation and poor conditions of service and welfare of police officers. The police play important roles without which the sustenance of order, legality, development and democracy may be difficult. Therefore, any pro-poor change initiative must take account of the facilitative and inhibitive roles of the police in society. The primary role of police is policing – securing compliance with existing laws and conformity with precepts of social order. But the police are not the only agency involved in policing, in the broad sense of the term. Policing has always been necessary in all societies for the preservation of order, safety and social relations. The necessity of policing becomes even more evident in modern societies characterized by diversities and contradictions arising from population heterogeneity, urbanization, industrialization, conflicting ideologies on appropriate socio-political and economic form of organization. However, the emergence of the police, a body of men recruited and paid by the state to enforce law and maintain order, is a recent development in human history.
