Strategic Responses by Administration Police Service in Kenya to Crime Prevention: a Case Study of Nairobi County

Abstract

Over many years now the police in this country have been juggling to fight the increasing crime rate with must less success. No efforts have been laid to establish how the responses adopted have been able to curb crime even at the wake of increasing crime. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine the strategic responses adopted by the administration police service in crime prevention within Nairobi County. The study adopted a case study research design. This research design allowed the researcher to gain more insight into the organization under study which little literature exist and an expert opinion was needed. The eleven sub-county commanders and the overall county police commander formed the target population, as they were involved with the day to day management of the security operation within Nairobi. An interview guide was used to collect primary data while secondary data were gathered from newspapers, police records, and publications. The data collected were analyzed using content analysis. The study found out that meeting the demands of a more globalized, culturally diverse and technologically connected society with fewer resources represented a significant challenge, and that the overreliance of police on the traditional method viewed as reactive was inadequate, hence the need to develop and adopt modern methods that are proactive in nature. The study found a mismatch between the high crime prevalence and the strategic responses adopted in preventing them. Following the findings from this study, it was recommended that the government establish a national crime prevention center that would oversee the formulation and implementation of a national crime combating strategy, while also widening the scope of the police in their efforts to combat crime. Due to the crime changes in trends and patterns the study recommends the adoption of SARA model; that the police should constantly scan its environment for any possible problem, analyse the problems within the community in order of priority, develop and implement responses that are better suited for the problems while also developing mechanisms to evaluate these responses and make remedial action for the responses not suitable.