Hisbah as a Model of Community Policing in Nigeria

As a religious police, there is an ongoing debate on whether <i>Hisbah </i>can aligned itself to the philosophy of community policing that stressed the need for the uniformed officers to engage local citizens in law enforcement activities, which shall be accomplished through flexible hierarchies and protocols, with a view to address the root causes of neighborhood crimes and disorder. In view of the above, this paper examined the nature of <i>Hisbah </i>police work in the Moslem dominated northern Nigeria where it was established with a view to understand how the elements common to all community policing approaches are observed. It was established that community policing attributes including partnership, organizational transformation and problem solving are not only found in <i>Hisbah </i>policing, but also a prerequisite without which no <i>Hisbah </i>policing can take place. In fact, the study has established that <i>Hisbah </i>policing is another model of community policing, which was ignored by the academia and criminal justice commentators. The paper posited that in the <i>Hisbah </i>community policing model, there is always a constructive engagement of the citizens in the police enterprise, especially in addressing moral decadence which often give birth to crime and disorder in the community. Finally, the study has established that community policing has been recognized by and practiced in Islamic <i>sharia states</i>, which prompted the debate on whether the philosophy of community policing was copied from the <i>Hisbah </i>policing model, being the oldest (more than 1000 years old), or it was just a mere coincidence. The debate is opened for researchers to explore.