A well-managed state police would also enable state communities to know the proper police/citizen ratio in their states as stipulated by global best practice. Besides, as experiences in some other climes have shown, mutual interest in a case by both federal and state authorities may lead to clashes between officers of the national police and state police in the prosecution of justice. There are also fears that not every state has the financial capacity or the political will to establish state police. Justified as these fears are, they are not really strong enough as arguments to oppose the establishment of state police. The weakness of this argument lies on the fact that, compared to the benefits of state police, the challenges of impunity and clashes of interest are merely aberrations of standard practice.In all, the fundamental argument in support of state police is that, beyond being a symbolic gesture of democracy, the seeming intractable problem of insecurity in the country has made the introduction of state police an imperative.

Source: The Guardian March 05, 2018 03:56 UTC