Police-Citizen Collaboration on Security Enhancement in Gasabo District, Rwanda ()
1. Introduction
In many parts of the world, including Europe, the United States, Australia, Asia, South America, and Africa, community policing is becoming embraced as the new face of increased security. Once Sir Robert Peel established community policing as a method of battling crime in England, the police were given more authority and were allowed to interact more with the public (Douglas & Braga, 2021) . Beginning in the early 1990s, the London government underwent this change as well as the initiative to hire more police officers to reduce crime (Mulaphong & Cheurprakobkit, 2021) . In the US, community policing started in the 1970s, but the majority of law enforcement organizations did not completely adopt the idea until 1980. Argentina’s Mendoza province launched an armaments exchange program that attracted a lot of interest (Ansorg & Gordon, 2019) .
Security enhancement refers to improvement in the state of security in a particular location. Enhanced security implies that individuals are safe and free move around without any fear of being attacked. Further, security enhancement implies to reduction in the cases of crime within a society. As such, people no longer live in fear of being attacked or their properties being stolen. It is the desire of every government and nation to achieve enhanced security. A country with enhanced security thrives socially, politically and economically. Community policing is one of the approaches in which countries can enhance their security. It makes everyone develop a sense of responsibility in promoting peace and unity (Rexer & Patil, 2017) .
Community policing philosophy is based on joint collaboration principle. This collaboration is between individuals, law stakeholders, and organizations. They work as a team to develop solutions to incidences and help to build up trust in police. Police are not in a position to counter insecurity cases alone and hence the need to encourage interactive collaboration with relevant stakeholders. According to Giwa (2018) community policing is powered by the assumption that the success of preventing crime by the police is dependent on the willingness of the public to participate. As such, the law enforcers should help the community understand that they are key co-producers of security and order.
The argument by Giwa is relevant to this study since it brings out the role of stakeholder participation in the fight against insecurity advocated by the community policing program. Similarly, the proposed study seeks to understand the importance of stakeholder participation in security enhancement. However, one of the weaknesses of the Giwa (2018) study is that they did not elaborate how the public should participate in the fight against insecurity. There is need for a clear procedure on public participation. The proposed study will seek to address the knowledge by focusing on some of the procedures that should guide stakeholders’ participation.
Problem Statement
The Rwandan government has shown its commitment to improving security by establishing a community police committee in 2007. However, cases of uncertainty are still widespread. A report by the Rwandan National Institute of Statistics (NISR, 2021) recorded 34,179 crimes in 2017, 43,279 crimes in 2018, 71,360 crimes in 2019, and 86,713 crimes in 2020, the crime continued to rise in 2021 up to 118,426 crimes. Crime has been steadily increasing since 2017 and 2022 crime has doubled compared to 2018. From the statistics above, the provincial crime statistics for 2019 show that the city of Kigali recorded the highest crime rate with 17,092 crimes. In addition, crime statistics recorded for each district in 2015, 2016 and 2017 show that Gasabo District has the highest crime rate compared to other districts with 1607 crime cases in 2015, 1805 cases in 2016, and 2884 cases in 2017.
Furthermore, the NISR (2021) report indicates total crimes rose to 71,092 in 2019 and 86,731 in 2020. The crimes continued to rise in 2021 up to 118,426 crimes, ranging from theft, assault or battery, narcotic drugs, smuggling and defilement. The above statistics confirm that there is a serious security challenge in Rwanda, especially in Gasabo District which is located in Kigali City. If this situation is not contained it can lead to high crime rate and insecurity in the country. Despite, the adoption of community policing in Rwanda, there is still high prevalence of crime. There are limited researches conducted on the role of community policing in security enhancement. It is on this premise that the current study sought to fill the knowledge gap by assessing the influence of community policing police-citizen collaboration on security enhancement in Gasabo District, Rwanda.
2. Literature Review
2.1. Theoretical Review
Broken Windows Theory is a theory of criminology that describes the signalling role of urban disorder and vandalism as contributors to crime and antisocial activity. The theory suggests that preserving and controlling well-ordered urban environments will put a stop to more vandalism and escalation into more severe crime. Wilson and Kelling (1982) first formulated the idea of broken windows, and that idea was further developed by Kelling and Coles (1998) .
The theory suggests that minor disorder can decrease fear of crime, informal social regulation, and increase criminality if not taken seriously and targeted. Social incidences (public urination and drunkenness, drug use, prostitution, teenage loitering, and panhandling) and physical incidences (vacant homes, empty lots, garbage and litter, vandalism, and abandoned cars) lead to urban decay (Kelling & Coles, 1998) . Police departments have adopted this theory on the basis of their proposition that serious crimes can be reduced by controlling minor disorders.
The theory perceives the key to crime reduction as operating under informal social controls within the community (Wilson & Kelling, 1982) . As a result, its focus is on how police can reinforce and enhance such social controls, especially where informal social controls have become weak (Jiao, 2022) . This shares community health issues with community-oriented and substantive justice policing, and envisages a role for police in identifying ways to improve community institutions and mechanisms that offer a degree of protection from violence and neighborhood crime.
Wilson and Kelling (1982) identified a link between social instability and crime, and proposed that police should pay attention to problems that may be viewed as unrelated to the police job under the conventional model. According to the theory, “unattended” actions (abandoned property, unruly youth activity) would lead to a breakdown of community controls and serious crime developed if police and residents did not work together to prevent urban degradation and social disorder (Jiao, 2022) .
The theory’s merit is that it argues that tackling smaller issues can prevent bigger crimes, and the experiment in New York City found that to be the case. In some cases, suspects were caught committing minor crimes but then ended up being prosecuted for larger crimes. Longitudinal research by Jiao (2022) found that proactive regulation of neighborhood nuisance had a significant effect on crime reduction. Several jurisdictions are also using crime and other statistical data to guide the policy, including New York City and Detroit where the Manhattan Institute is promoting a broken windows approach to law enforcement. The program relies on using data along with what officers see on the streets to deter violence, rather than just reacting to it.
Critics of the theory argue, however, that what one person may perceive as a sign of disorder is not the same signal to another. According to the Pacific Standard, a study in Boston found that individuals believe private conflict, not public disorder, is a greater predictor of violence. That raises concerns about the wisdom of law enforcement decisions based on signs of neglect and disorder. Moreover, Newark, New Jersey’s relationship between the police and minority communities has deteriorated due to broken window policing. Residents thought that officers were spending too much time to deal with minor offenses. Kelling himself told Frontline that he was upset over the years that police said they had put broken window-like security in place, but had not trained officers adequately.
Numerous empirical studies have provided support to the broken windows theory. There is evidence that while there are variations of the condition or incidences, broken windows theory has affected community policing strategies (Taylor, 2018) . This hypothesis is chosen to direct this analysis due to its insightful approach to the evolution of crime within the culture to be tackled by the community policing programme.
2.2. Empirical Review
Skogan and Hartnett (2019) emphasize the essence of collaboration working in community policing. He proposes to the police to take community engagement upon them and even schedule it in their work outline. If they partner with community groups then a relationship will be built up with the community. Whereby, they will be able to gather important information that will help them address security issues. However, this research was not carried out in Rwanda and hence its findings cannot be generalized to the Rwandan context. The proposed study seeks to address this contextual gap.
Kimani (2020) noted that the community policing was successful since the stakeholders worked together to generate a shared sense of ownership and commitment. Various stakeholders actively participate throughout each phase of community policing programme and have developed solid collaborations. This has resulted to overall security enhancement within the communities.
Morbe (2018) noted that involvement of local community stakeholders was essential to the effective growth of the society. One of the key points in this study is the need for the people to be proactive and willingly volunteer to participate in the community policing. If people are unwillingly to work with the police, then it would be impossible to realize the ultimate goal of a safe society. Therefore, individuals should make a deliberate decision to support the law enforcers in achieving the goal of enhanced security. However, this study was not conducted in Rwanda.
When the police and supervision agencies partner for the purpose of managing parolees and probationers present in the community: a safe environment is realized. These collaborations can realize a secure environment in four ways that is; intervening to interpose crime-oriented behavior, facilitating supervisee success, responding in case of supervisees’ failure, and addressing problems in the community (Re-entry Policy Council & Council of State Governments, 2013) . The first way can be achieved through reentry preparation, incident planning, and backing for behavior change through collaboration. This works out to enable the probationer and parolee, achieve good success. Second, collaboration intervenes in disrupting crime-oriented behavior, hereby helping the police and community supervision agencies in creating a secure community environment.
A good number of the probationers and parolees have recognizable traits, for example, failed drug tests. Now, when police and community supervision officers work together they are able to realize these noticeable behaviors and make the necessary communications to each other and other community partners like mental health practitioners. They also sit down together in a coordinated response to find a solution to those problems.
Third, an improvement of response time to failure by both parties, that is, police and supervision agencies is essential. Whereby, they join hands in criminal discovery and exchange information without delay. Also, holding supervisees responsible is important and in some cases they are even removed from the community if they are irresponsible. These actions are taken to curb insecurity in the community. The strategies mentioned demonstrate how collaboration can enhance security in the community (Rwamuhizi & Irechukwu, 2022) . In the USA, such collaborations are known as “Home Watch”. This is where the police and community join hands and the police engage the community more on crime prevention. The police also encourage the community to be responsible in controlling social disorders. Forming collaborations with related agencies, police and the community would enhance “Home Watch” capacity to attain this. A literature on reassurance policing supports this perception (Millie & Herrington, 2019) .
2.3. Conceptual Framework
This conceptual framework presents the study variables and their components that guide investigation leading to study findings. Figure 1 shows that the independent variable (police-citizen collaboration) influences the dependent variable (security enhancement).
3. Methodology
The study adopted mixed methodology approach and the concurrent triangulation design. The study targeted approximately 139,358 household heads of Gasabo District, 73 Community Policing Committee (CPC) chairpersons, 15 Community Liaison Officers, and 260 Police Officers. The study sampled 576 household heads for quantitative data whereas the CPC chairpersons, Community Liaison Officers, Police Officers and Opinion leaders were used for qualitative data. Multistage sampling technique was used to select the participants. Questionnaire, interview guides and discussion guides were used to collect data. Reliability of the questionnaire was tested by Cronbach Alpha. The coefficient value used was 0.7. To ensure validity of the questionnaire, it was reviewed by the supervisors. Trustworthiness of the interview and discussion guides were ensured using both dependability and credibility. For dependability, the researcher ensured that every step of the process was clear, while credibility was ensured through use of appropriate research methods. SPSS software version 25.0 was used to analyze the data. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (regression analysis), which was used to determine the relationship between the factors of the research. Qualitative data from the interview guides was analyzed thematically and presented in narratives.
4. Results and Discussion
4.1. Reliability Testing
The researcher used Cronbach’s Alpha (α) to check whether the instrument was reliable. Cronbach’s Alpha will use 0.7 as the recommended value as the cut-off of reliability for this study.
The findings in Table 1 indicate that security enhancement variable had a Cronbach alpha value of 0.817, and Police-citizen collaboration had 0.833. This denoted that all the variables had values greater than 0.7 implying reliability of the data collected. According to Sheth and Naik (2016) , items with alpha value greater than 0.7 are considered reliable and are adopted for the main study. Therefore, the items measuring the study variables were reliable and hence were adopted in the subsequent analysis.
4.2. Security Enhancement Indicators Findings
Descriptive Statistics on Security Enhancement
The dependent variable in this study was security enhancement. Table 1 shows the descriptive statistics on security enhancement. The results are presented in frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations. The following scale was used: strongly disagree (1), disagree (2), neutral (3), agree (4), and strongly agree (5).
As indicated in Table 2, most of the respondents (88.1%, m = 4.3) agreed that there is increased crime prevention due to community policing. The respondents also agreed that there is improved social cohesion due to community policing (88.2%, m = 4.3), there is increased community safety due to community policing (91.7%, m = 4.4), and there is reduced number of arrests made due to community policing (76.2%, m = 4.0). Further, majority of the respondents (77.8%, m = 4.0) agreed that there is reduced number of crime cases reported due to community policing, there is reduced number of incidents reported due to community policing (88.2%, m = 4.3), and there is reduction in restricted movement due to community policing (88.4%, m = 4.4). The findings imply that most of the respondents had positive opinion towards security enhancement using community policing. Therefore, security enhancement could be attributed to community policing components. According to Javed et al. (2018) , an individual feels secure if he/she has job and health security and living in an environment free from crime.
The respondents were requested to give their opinion regarding how the security could be enhanced and the opinions are presented in Figure 2.
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Table 2. Descriptive statistics on security enhancement.
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Figure 2. Respondents’ opinion on how to enhance security.
The highest percentage of the respondents (40.0%) indicated that police posts should be established at every cell/village in order to provide fast services thus enhance security. This was followed by those in the opinion of increased trainings at all levels/sectors (30.0%) as indicated in Figure 2.
Thematic Analysis on Security Enhancement
The respondents were asked to state the role of community policing in enhancing security. The respondents noted the need to put suggestion box in the villages, police and citizens to carry out joint patrols, regular trainings to the population at all levels for both adults and youth, and establish police posts at every cell in order to provide the population with fast services. Rexer and Patil (2017) stated that community policing is one of the approaches in which countries can enhance their security. It makes everyone develop a sense of responsibility in promoting peace and unity.
The respondents also noted the importance of installing more security cameras, police deployments should come down up to cell level for quick intervention, increase of police stations, and police should train local population in villages and cells about community policing periodically. It was recommended that police should reduce brutality to enhance security.
One respondent, R3, was quoted saying… “Crimes have reduced however; Police takes time to intervene in case of incidents thus, a need for police to increase response time where there are incidents”.
Responses from Interview guide by CPC and CLOs
The participants were asked to explain how community policing had influenced the various security enhancement aspects in Gasabo District. The participants noted that crimes have reduced, security information was shared timely, and use of police free call lines. Further, citizens are now living in peace and have hope for the future. Domestic violence reduced. In addition, security is guaranteed, life expectancy increased, there are local patrols in villages and neighbor would watch.
On crime prevention, participant P1, stated that… “Police citizen collaboration has helped in information sharing about crimes before they happen to police which helps to prevent crimes”.
On social cohesion, participant P3, noted that… “Police helps in resolving crime related problems of the people living in Rwanda and this increases the trust between police and population thus, promoting harmony with one another in our community”.
Participant P4, reiterated that… “Due to different community policing programs in Gasabo district security has been improved and people are living in harmony with one another, there are no mistrust among the community members”.
On community safety, Participants P1, stated that… “The community safety is generally good no serious crimes have been registered for the last 06 months in our sector Kimihurura, people living in Rwanda work hand in hand with the police to resolve any security matter that may arise”.
Participants P3, observed that… “In our sector Remera security has improved because through police sensitization we now understand how we can take part in provision of security in our community”.
Participant P5, reiterated that… “The community safety has increased in Gasabo district this is because people now are partners in security matters when any incident happens members of community report it to police immediately and work together to resolve it”.
Participant P7, stated that… “Where there is police security is granted in case of any issue Police can easily intervene, in Gasabo district we trust Rwanda National Police and we are ensured of security”.
Responses from focus group discussion by community leaders
The church leaders were required to explain how community policing had influenced the following security enhancement aspects in Gasabo district.
On crime prevention, one of the discussants, D18 stated that… “Generally, crimes have been prevented and thus really reduced. For example, the crime of using forced labor within homes, child labor has been reduced to some extent just because of information sharing because by now before you hire a worker (housemaid) you first have to ask for national identity card to make sure that you are preventing yourself to commit the above crime”.
On social cohesion, the discussant D18 observed that… “Initially, when all people have peace with belief that they have to protect one another implies such social cohesion. Because regardless of your social category whether poor or rich you just believe that even your fellow citizen is a human being hence promoting social cohesion. Also, the other initiative of ‘Akagoroba k’ababyeyi’ evening parents meeting has indeed brought remarkable change concerning social cohesion. Simply because it is from this evening meeting where all social values are learnt, and this social dialogue builds closest relationship hence promoting social cohesion”.
On community safety, discussant D19 cited that… “Concerning community safety, right from the beginning we talked about self-initiative of neighborhood watch. Everyone is now aware that he/she is responsible for his/her own security. The great work of civilian local patrols is another initiative that promoted community safety because they are everywhere compared to police which cannot manage to be on every house. Lastly the idea of making police call number to be known everywhere has also promoted community safety”.
Mixing and Interpreting of Quantitative and Qualitative Data
Data on Security enhancement was analyzed using descriptive and thematic. From the descriptive point of view, majority of the respondents reported that there was increased crime prevention due to community policing, there was improved social cohesion due to community policing, there was increased community safety due to community policing, there was reduced number of arrests made due to community policing, and there was reduced number of crime cases reported due to community policing. The thematic analysis had similar results where participants reported that there was general improvement in security.
4.3. Influence of Police-Citizen Collaboration on Security Enhancement
The study sought to examine the influence of police-citizen collaboration on security enhancement in Gasabo District, Rwanda. The descriptive statistics, thematic analysis and regression analysis results are presented in this section.
Descriptive Statistics on Police-Citizen Collaboration
Table 3 shows the descriptive statistics on the police-citizen collaboration. The results are presented in frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations. The following scale was used: strongly disagree (1), disagree (2), neutral (3), agree (4), and strongly agree (5).
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Table 3. Descriptive statistics on police-citizen collaboration.
As indicated in Table 3 regarding to the police-citizen collaboration, most respondents (90.7%, m = 4.5) agreed with the statement that the community do community works (Umuganda) with the police towards enhancing security. Majority (94.7%, m = 4.5) of the respondents also agreed that the community was interested in solving crime problems just as police and this promotes security. Further, there was agreement among the respondents that there are established coordination mechanism between police and community (91.2%, m = 4.4). The findings imply that most of the respondents acknowledged that measures have been taken to ensure collaboration between police and citizens.
The findings further revealed that most of the respondents (83.7%, m = 4.2) agreed that there are forums to discuss crime issues between the community and police, the confidence between community and police makes reporting of crime easy (90.2%, m = 4.4), community was familiar with common trends of crime acts due to frequent notices from the police (84.6%, m = 4.2), and trust between the police and the community has enhanced crime reduction (89.1%, m = 4.4). The findings imply that majority of the respondents had positive opinion towards police-citizen collaboration. Therefore, police-citizen collaboration is expected to positively influence security enhancement. The findings concurred with Martin (2020) assertion that to enable cooperation the police must initiate good relationships with the community where trust is the main facilitating factor. According to Kearns (2020) , community collaboration involves developing and retaining cordial confidence between community members and police.
The respondents were requested to give their opinion about the role of police-citizen collaboration to enhance security and the opinions are presented in Figure 3.
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Figure 3. Respondents’ opinion on the role of police-citizen collaboration in enhancing security.
As indicated in Figure 3, the respondents were in the opinion of police placements at the cell level (31.4%), community sensitization/training in crime prevention (22.9%), police and community should work together and individuals sharing information should be protected by police (14.3%) were stated as the main police-citizen collaboration to enhance security.
Thematic Analysis on Police-citizen Collaboration and Security Enhancement
The respondents were asked to suggest other ways in which police-citizen collaboration can help enhance security. The respondents noted that police deployments should go up to cells level, tightening security in areas known to be insecure to reduce theft, joint patrol with police, and training of community policing committees. According to Houkes and Vaesen (2020) , when the relationship between the public and the police is good, the public will be free to share any information that is of security interest with the policy.
One of the respondents, R1 stated that… “Police and the community need to work together to ensure that the people are able to provide reliable information by training them”.
Another respondent, R2 reiterated that… “RNP should schedule more time for citizens to know what there are going through and thus intelligence collection”.
The respondents also noted that population should be trained about security improvement, recruitment of more police officers, and police should work with different religions in campaigns of community policing.
Responses from Interview Guide by CPC and CLOs
The participants noted that police-citizen collaboration as a component of community policing was critical in security enhancement. In particular, the participants observed that information is shared timely and this helps in crime prevention. Further, there are free police call lines to be used by population just in case of any problem.
Participant P1, observed that “Police collaborate with the citizen by participating in various community activities like “Umunganda” to mean community work which is done every last week of the month, joint patrols and in the Police week”.
Participant P3, stated that… “Collaboration between police and citizen exist in sense that when a member of the community gives information about a crime either in its commission or conspiracy to police their try to follow up and finds out more”.
Participant P4, reiterated that “Police collaborate with the community by involving them in police programs and activities aiming at ensuring security and crime prevention, such as “Gerayo Amahoro” which is a road safety campaign, firefighting through training in use of extinguishers”.
Participant P5, cited that… “Decentralization of the existing cooperation between Police and CPCs from sector level to Cell and village level”.
Participant P6, observed that “Joint operation center (JOC) meetings that are conducted at sector levels are productive therefore, similar meetings should also be initiated at cell level to discuss security related issues in cell”.
Participant P9, stated that “Police should be attending “intenko zabaturange” referring to local community council meetings in order to get a clear understanding of what members of the community are going through and take the opportunity to sensitize citizens on crime prevention as well as other community policing programs”.
Participant P10, noted that… “There is need of police officers coordinating community policing committees at sector level. We used to have them but now days we do not know what happened, they are no long present at sector level”.
When asked what should be done in regard to police-citizen collaboration so as to achieve security enhancement in Gasabo District, the participants highlighted the following themes; police to protect people and their property; patriotism, information sharing, and commitment on both sides police and the population; police to work together citizen in crime prevention; police to work together with local population and police in order to prevent crime; and police to work professionally and that can increase trust from the population.
Responses from Focus Group Discussion by Opinion Leader’s
The religious leaders were asked whether police-citizen collaboration had been effective as a community policing tool in reducing crime within GASABO district. One of the discussants, D4 noted that “Firstly, there is proof of collaboration like nowadays every citizen is allowed to give information to security organs especially Rwanda National Police and Rwanda Investigation Bureau and in this concern it’s obvious that crimes like theft has reduced due to timely reporting of acquired information and collaboration between police and the citizen”.
Another discussant, D5 reiterated that… “Collaboration with police has indeed reduced crimes in way that, currently whenever there is any case arising within the society, it is obvious that every citizen is free to call and inform police without any fear in return it has reduced crimes. For example, whenever there is an accident unlike in other countries whereby if accidents occur it will be a chance for thieves to come take away properties of the passengers, here in Rwanda immediately after an accident, every citizen around will be willing to help and call police for help and the good thing is that police intervene immediately which really reduces crimes because of good collaboration”.
A discussant D7 further stated that… “The collaboration of police and citizen has really reduced crimes. I can give a typical example proving this whereby I personally once upon time it was one night at my home in Rusororo sector, Kabuga 1, insangano village when I woke up and found almost all my house properties and utensils stolen by thieves. But surprisingly just after few hours around 8:00 AM because of good police-citizen collaboration, I was called by my fellow citizens to go pick the stolen properties at the police station proving that this collaboration has reduced crimes”.
Another discussant, D8 reiterated that… “they suggested that there should be suggestion boxes so as to share information properly. These suggestion boxes will be safe for the citizens to give reliable information because at the end of the day no one will know that you are the one who gave out information”.
Another discussant, D9 reiterated that “the collaboration between Police and the citizen is there but issues are high population growth rate, unemployment and high levels of poverty are major cause of increase in crime in Gasabo District”.
The university lecturers, secondary and primary school teachers also noted that collaboration has achieved a lot though some gaps are still existing. For more and effective means to reduce crimes, collaboration with police needs to be strengthened.
4.4. Regression Analysis
The study sought to assess the influence of police-citizen collaboration on security enhancement. A simple linear regression was performed to examine the influence of police-citizen collaboration on security enhancement. Table 4 indicates the model summary results.
Table 4 presents R and R square values for coefficient of correlation and extent of variation respectively. The R value of 0.542 indicates a positive association and this implies a relatively moderate level of correlation between police-citizen collaboration and security enhancement. The R-square value of 0.294 indicates that 29.4% of changes in security enhancement is contributed by police-citizen collaboration. The remaining 70.6% of the security enhancement variation could be explained by other factors other than police-citizen collaboration.
In addition, Table 4 below shows that there is no autocorrelation or the residuals are uncorrelated as the Durbin Watson is 1.831 (which is within the acceptable range of 1.5 to 2.5. Moreover, to validate the regression analysis, histogram and P-P plot presented in Figure 4 shows reasonable normality of data.
The validity of the model in Table 5 was also validated using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and results are shown in 5.
Table 5 demonstrates that analysis of variance (ANOVA) test between police-citizen collaboration and security enhancement. The F statistic value was
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Table 4. Model summary; police-citizen collaboration and security enhancement.
Independent variable: police-citizen collaboration; Dependent Variable: security enhancement.
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Table 5. ANOVA test for police-citizen collaboration and security enhancement.
Independent variable: police-citizen collaboration; Dependent Variable: security enhancement.
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Figure 4. Histogram and P-P plot for police-citizen collaboration and security enhancement.
240.027 and p value of less than 0.05. This implies that the regression model predicts significantly the dependent variable (security enhancement). This means that there is a significant relationship between police-citizen collaboration and security enhancement. The regression coefficients results are presented in Table 6.
As indicated in Table 6, the statistical coefficients of police-citizen collaboration on security enhancement shows that the value of unstandardized coefficient (B) is 0.601 (p value < 0.05), which confirms that police-citizen collaboration is significantly and positively predicting security enhancement.
The linear regression model equation is presented as follows;
Y = 1.624 + 0.601X
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Table 6. Regression coefficients; police-citizen collaboration and security enhancement.
Dependent Variable: security enhancement.
where;
Y = Security Enhancement
X = Police-citizen collaboration
From this equation, the model predicts that when police-citizen collaboration is zero, the security enhancement is 1.624. It also predicts that for a one-unit increase in police-citizen collaboration, security enhancement increases by 0.601 units holding the other predictors fixed. The study findings agreed with those of Nalla et al. (2018) who observed significant advantages of connecting communities with the police. Similarly, Feltes (2018) posited that establishment of a mutual trust and maintaining it is the key thing in community-policing. Further, Skogan and Hartnett (2019) emphasized the essence of collaboration working in community policing. In addition, the findings corroborated Kimani (2020) assertion that community policing was successful since the stakeholders worked together to generate a shared sense of ownership and commitment.
Mixing and Interpreting of Quantitative and Qualitative Data
Data on police-citizen collaboration and security enhancement was analyzed using descriptive, thematic and inferential methods. From the descriptive point of view, majority of the respondents reported that the community do community works (Umuganda) with the police towards enhancing security, the community is interested in solving crime problems just as police, and there are established coordination mechanism between police and community. Further, the respondents established that there are forums to discuss crime issues between the community and police, the confidence between community and police makes reporting of crime easy, community was familiar with common trends of crime acts due to frequent notices from the police and trust between the police and the community has enhanced crime reduction. The thematic analysis had similar results where participants supported the role of police-citizen collaboration in security enhancement. Further, inferential statistics revealed similar outcome that a positive and significant association between police-citizen collaboration and security enhancement. The statistical coefficients indicated that police-citizen collaboration had a positive and significant influence on security enhancement in Gasabo District, Rwanda.
4.5. Discussion of the Findings
The research findings showed that most of the respondents agreed that the community do community works (Umuganda) with the police towards enhancing security (90.7%), the community was interested in solving crime problems just as police and this promotes security (94.7%), and there are established coordination mechanism between police and community (91.2%). The findings imply that most of the respondents acknowledged that measures have been taken to ensure collaboration between police and citizens. Martin (2020) added that to enable cooperation the police must initiate good relationships with the community where trust is the main facilitating factor. According to Kearns (2020) , community collaboration involves developing and retaining cordial confidence between community members and police.
The findings further revealed that most of the respondents agreed that there are forums to discuss crime issues between the community and police (83.7%), the confidence between community and police makes reporting of crime easy (90.2%), community was familiar with common trends of crime acts due to frequent notices from the police (84.6%), and trust between the police and the community has enhanced crime reduction (89.1%). The findings suggested that majority of the respondents had positive opinion towards police-citizen collaboration. Therefore, police-citizen collaboration is expected to positively influence security enhancement. According to Houkes and Vaesen (2020) , when the relationship between the public and the police is good, the public will be free to share any information that is of security interest with the policy.
The R value of 0.542 indicates a positive association and this implies a relatively moderate level of correlation between police-citizen collaboration and security enhancement. The R-square value of 0.294 indicates that 29.4% of changes in security enhancement are contributed by police-citizen collaboration. The statistical coefficients of police-citizen collaboration on security enhancement show that the value of unstandardized coefficient (B) is 0.601 (p value < 0.05), which confirms that police-citizen collaboration is significantly and positively predicting security enhancement.
The study findings agreed with those of Nalla et al. (2018) who observed significant advantages of connecting communities with the police. Similarly, Feltes (2018) posited that establishment of a mutual trust and maintaining it is the key thing in community-policing. Further, Skogan and Hartnett (2019) emphasized the essence of collaboration working in community policing. In addition, the findings corroborated Kimani (2020) assertion that community policing was successful since the stakeholders worked together to generate a shared sense of ownership and commitment. Finally, the findings supported Morbe (2018) observation that involvement of local community stakeholders was essential to the effective growth of the society.
The findings of this study address various research gaps as pointed out in chapter two. Firstly, the contextual gap was addressed since this study concentrated on Rwandan context. Secondly, the conceptual gap was addressed since this study examined the relationship between police-citizen collaboration and security enhancement. Finally, the methodological gap was addressed since this study employed mixed methodology. This study also confirms the theoretical prediction of securitization theory and social disorganization theory that linked police-citizen collaboration as a component of community policing to security enhancement.
5. Conclusion
The study concluded that police-citizen collaboration had a positive and significant influence on security enhancement in Gasabo District, Rwanda. This has the implication that police-citizen collaboration contributes significantly to security enhancement in Gasabo District, Rwanda. The key aspects of focus in police-citizen collaboration were community works (Umuganda), coordination mechanism between police and community, forums to discuss crime issues between the community and police, and trust between the police and the community.
6. Recommendations
The study recommended the need for RNP to strengthen the police-citizen collaboration for security enhancement. In particular, the institution should focus on enhancing the following police-citizen collaboration aspects: community works (Umuganda), coordination mechanism between police and community, enhance training programs for Police Officers to emphasize community engagement, forums to discuss crime issues between the community and police, and trust between the police and the community.