CHAPTER ONE
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY The relationship between police and citizens must be informed between ethical and professional principles that allow for the effectiveness of their function. One of the challenges to the community police units is to maintain peace and. When Law is violated, crime has been committed. The study seeks to focus on the law Enforcement Agency (Nigeria Police Force) in crime control and prevention. The law enforcement agency in real sense of the term according to Iwarime-Jaja (1991: 74), refers to criminal justice agency ( federal, state or local) which perform the principal functions of prevention, and apprehension of alledged offenders. By enforcement of the law Nigeria Police Force reflect the ideological interest and priority desired by the controllers of the state as observable in intractable competitions. Throughout the length and breadth of our nation Thompson (1986), posted that innocent citizens are gripped with fear of armed men, hoodlums, and vagabonds who perpetrate their evil with reckless abandon. Our society has ever since been witnessing an unprecedented upsurge of criminal activities ranging from conventional, victimless to white-collar crime, especially “pen-robbery†which is now almost institutionalized. Any nation plagued with this magnitude of social problem which people sign as they pass by make comments like it’s too bad, will no doubt look for solutions. It is on this basis that Nigeria Police Force has come to stay. According to Ogunleye (1976:250, duties of the police are defined in section 4 of the4 police Act as “the prevention and detection of crime, the apprehension of offenders, the preservation                                    ÂÂÂÂÂÂ
of law and order, the regrettable, it is only the latter that lawÂÂÂ