Policy Briefs

A Bill to Provide for the Establishment of State Police is a proposed law aimed at creating police services under the control of individual state governments, alongside the existing federal police. The bill seeks to decentralise policing by empowering states to establish, fund, recruit, train, and manage their own police forces to address local security challenges more effectively. It also outlines the structure, powers, oversight, funding, accountability mechanisms, and cooperation between state police and federal security agencies. The overall objective is to improve public safety, strengthen community policing, enhance intelligence gathering, and enable faster responses to crime while maintaining national security and constitutional safeguards.

A legislative proposal by Think Yoruba First Political Action Committee to implement and regulate a decentralized three-tier policing structure in Nigeria comprising Local Police Services, State Police Services, and the Federal Police Service. It defines jurisdiction, operational independence, funding mechanisms, crime classification, inter-tier cooperation, civilian oversight, anti-extortion rules, use-of-force limits, whistleblower protection, body-worn camera requirements, national training standards, and a phased implementation timeline.