Role of Radio in Community Policing: a Case Study of Pumwani
Abstract
The global and regional security environment continues to experience dynamic
challenges and opportunities that call for new approaches in crime prevention. Most
countries in the world including the Commonwealth have shifted to community
policing as a policing strategy of the 21st Century and Kenya is not an exemption. As
a country, Kenya is affected by these developments that have necessitated a
paradigm shift in our policing doctrine. The study found out that an effective
policing communication strategy must be embraced to provide a framework that
allows community members to participate in securing themselves, their properties
and national interest. The study further indicates that radio is pivotal in raising
awareness of the importance and benefits of community policing because majority of
its listeners have knowledge about what entails in community policing and what is
constraining the success of the programme. In this perspective the study sought to
establish the role Ghetto radio plays in crime prevention, to establish the extent of
police-community partnership on crime reduction, to assess the extent to which
Ghetto radio station has sensitized in reduction of youth social disorder and to
establish the impact community policing as a crime reduction strategy has impacted
on the community livelihood. However, it recommended that further comparative
studies should be carried out in other parts of the country and other local radio
stations need to be engaged to sensitize citizens on the impact of community policing
in order to prevent emerging modern crimes.
Publisher
University of Nairobi