Building Trust, Reducing Tension: Exploring Community Dialogue Initiatives to Strengthen Police-Civilian Relations in Nigeria

Police-civilian relations in many Nigerian communities are characterised by mistrust, fear and frequent confrontations; as routine interactions often escalate into conflicts, thereby undermining efforts to prevent crime and violence. This project aims to conduct a preliminary investigation into how the Community Dialogue Initiative (CDI), an intervention developed in partnership with the Justice, Development and Peace Commission (JDPC), works. The initiative brings together police officers, youth groups, community leaders and civil society actors in facilitated dialogue sessions to address grievances, improve mutual understanding and reduce everyday tensions. The project will investigate the initiative’s implementation and leverage our partnership to access program data and conduct structured interviews with the initiative. The research will explore the following questions: What factors influence the participation of community dwellers and security actors in CDI? What barriers hinder participation? How effective is the Community Dialogue Initiative in reducing police-civilian clashes? The project will also investigate the motivation behind aggression and mistrust, the willingness to cooperate with crime prevention efforts and secure partners' collaboration. The project will generate evidence on the effectiveness of dialogue-based approaches in reducing tension. Conceptually, it advances understanding of how communication and trust shape institutional resilience in fragile contexts.