Towards Protecting Police Informants

The usual dictum, “the police is your friend”, to all intents and purposes presumes that the police as the official organization that is responsible for making sure that people obey the law of the land cannot succeed in its task without the full co-operation of members of the public.

Unarguably, it is for this reason that often times the police attribute some of their successful operations to tip off from members of the public.

Regrettably, however, in recent times, members of the public have developed cold feet in reporting criminal matters to the police and in some instances, outright jungle justice has been employed by the public to deal with suspected criminals with or without concrete evidence to show for it.

Investigations show that members of the public have scored the police low in handling matters reported to them by well-meaning Nigerians as most often, the informants finally turn out to be the accused, especially where the suspects have been manhandled.

As a law-abiding citizen, when a criminal act is being committed before ones’ eyes, what should be one’s reaction? Does one turn a blind eye or start a mob action by shouting “thief thief” or does one alert the police or the nearest security agency?

Would the modus operandi of the police in handling matters of such nature inform one’s judgement at such occurrences? And if so how?

For Mr. James Chinwo (not real name) who lives at Gambia street at Diobu in Port Harcourt, from past experience, reporting to the police could be dangerous as, according to him, the police know all the criminals in that area.

He said there was an incident where a woman food vendor reported some hoodlums to the police for eating her food without paying. He said the woman reported the matter to the police and  soon after the boys came back, they gave the woman a thorough beating but that nobody came to her rescue and the matter ended just like that.

“I won’t report to the police because at the end of the day those criminals will come after me. I know of a woman who lives in my neighbourhood who sells food. Some bad boys ate her food with force one day and she reported to the police. When they were released, they attacked the woman and beat her up even to the point of death. Nobody came to her rescue. So you can see that if you call police, the criminals, or the cult boys or even the militants will attack you”, he concludes.

On the contrary, Henry Godpower, a computer system engineer, explained that although the police have their shortcomings failure to report crime to them is a dis-service to the society.

Not withstanding that the police do not always act promptly, it is no excuse that one should not report a crime to them. To report to the police is a very good decision to take because that is the work of the police. So you have to let the police know because if you don’t let them know then they cannot get at the crime”, he opined.

According to Barr Churchill Osila, a Port Harcourt-based legal practitioner, any Nigerian citizen is empowered and has the civic responsibility to arrest any person seen committing an offence if he could.

Barr. Osila says the issue of crime is one against the state so to that extent if a crime is being committed, it becomes the duty of whoever that was present to let the police know because the police is the first point.

“A Policeman has the right to arrest a person that is committing an offence in his face and also if in the process of a policeman arresting a criminal, a citizen of Nigeria can assist the police officer.

“Besides that, a citizen, if he cannot arrest, has the duty to inform the police with respect to an offence against the society and being against the society, his duty is to report to police and the police must act. The purpose of that is to enable the police to come and arrest the supposed suspect and detain and do investigation. So as individuals, yes you have the right, it is a duty, and the reason for that is because it is a criminal offence against the society”, says Osila.

On the fear expressed in some quarters that the police do not protect the interest of informants which has led to apathy on the part of the public in reporting genuine cases to the police, Barr. Osila explains that the development has become a problem which he attributes to the attitude of the police.

“Well it has become a problem in our society now that if an individual reports an incident of criminality at anywhere, it becomes a problem that the police will most often instead of dealing with the situation directly would want to perhaps detain that person who brings the report and in some cases, I must say the police frustrate the good intention of the person who brings the suspect to them.

“In developing countries, the police protect informants because if it is a gang, it becomes more dangerous if he is not given adequate protection. His identity must be hidden.

“The purpose of protecting informants is to encourage people to further report incidents of criminality. But what we have here is a scenario where if you bring a suspect, the police will turn around to either detain you who brought the suspect or information.

“In other instances, the police take information about informants back to the gang thereby exposing the identity of the person for reasons that are ordinarily inconsistent with police action, thereby sabotaging the civic duty of the citizen to report criminal activity.

“So there is a disconnect between the police and the individual as in helping the police to nip criminal activities in the bud of which they have the duty to report to the police”, Osila argues.

While commending the efforts of some citizens who still report and inform the police on any criminality in the society, Barr. Osila appealed for restraint on the part of those who beat up or even lynch suspects as, according to him, it is a criminal offence.

“Employing jungle justice by a mob is unlawful. People do that with the notion that if the police are notified, justice will not be done. It should be noted that a suspect is presumed innocent until proved guilty by a competent court of law” Osila counseled.

For Mr. Goodluck Uwaks-Miwari, an educationist, that the police is not helping matters does not mean people should take the laws into their hands by manhandling suspected criminals.

“It is wrong and no body should take the law into their hands, that is why the police is there. When you see a crime situation or if I see a crime situation, what I should do is to report to the nearest police station or if there is a police agent around, I will run to him and complain.

“Unfortunately, the police themselves are not helping matters because when you report a matter to them, they may not come, if they come, at the end they will not look into the matter, or prosecute the matter properly either against the mob or against the person who is suspected to have committed the crime”, Uwaks-Miwari says.

Uwaks-Miwari claims it is sound jugement to report to the police and if the police fails to do its part then the people would judge them.

“If you take the law into your hand you are equally committing an offence in the society and in that case, I will advise that the police should arrest both parties and allow proper investigation to go on rather than arrest the informant alone.

“They should not just detain the informant immediately, even though the complainant has at a point committed an offence by beating up the suspect,” concludes Uwaks-Miwari.

However, a police inspector who chose to remain anonymous, explained that it was necessary to detain an informant in some cases to protect him or her from harm depending on the nature of the crime reported.

“It is for their own interest and safety and most times, it is the way these informants talk freely when they are released that people get to know that they were involved. If not they are fully protected, especially in the cases that fall under the criminal category”, he emphasised.