Duties of assistant superintendent of police in Nigeria
Those of you who read old British children’s detective books should know who is Superintendent of Police. This rank was popular in the British Empire and is still used in several countries across the globe, including Nigeria. Just like any important rank, every Nigeria Police Force Superintendent has his assistant. Would you like to learn more about the duties of Assistant of Superintendent of Police in Nigeria?
Superintendent of Police
When the British Empire existed, its police force had a rank called ASP (Assistant of Superintendent of Police) or AS (Assistant Superintendent). Back in those days, this wasn’t a high job position for an officer. It was the lowest rank in the system.
The 20th century introduced different countries to these ranks, and the job position became common not only for Scotland Yard in the United Kingdom of Great Britain but also in other territories. Nigeria Police Force still has both Superintendent and Assistant of Superintendent of Police as ranks.
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Assistant Superintendent of Police
Before we talk about the duties of Assistant Superintendent of Police in Nigeria, we have to note that this is not the highest rank in the system nowadays, but it is also not the lowest one as it used to be in the British Empire.
If we take a closer look at the system of ranks we will see such positions as constable, sergeant, commissioner, inspector, and others. The total number of available ranks is 15, and ASP is the 6th lowest rank that is just above the inspector of police. Before a person can grow to the superintendent rank (SP), it is necessary to serve as constable, corporal, sergeant, and sergeant major, inspector of police, ASP, deputy superintendent of police (DSP) and only after all these achievements you can deserve to become the SP.
Primary duties of Assistant Superintendent of Police in Nigeria
While the duties of the police force in Nigeria is to provide security in the city, arrest those people who break the law, investigate crimes, detect and prevent crime and so on, the main duties of Assistant Superintendent of Police in Nigeria are a bit more precise.
According to infowaka.com, the number of specific tasks is focused on the activities that are performed by officers and other police staff. ASPs help SP in their supervision and control of duties such as:
- Determination of people concerns on social behavior.
- Building priorities in the communities to reach public safety.
- Preventing anti-social behavior and possible crimes.
- Monitoring tasks and strategies to maintain law and order in the community.
- Improving the performance of police stations.
- Supervision of all cases that are registered by the police stations in a related district.
- Coordination of district heads.
- Supervision of maintenance of equipment, technique, vehicles, staff, etc.
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By the way, in many areas across Nigeria ASP (Assistant Superintendent of Police) has the same duties as ACP (Assistant Commissioner of Police). This depends on the population of the area and is mostly used in the cities, where inspectors are the heads of local police divisions, and every ACP/ASP is mainly in charge for several police stations (3, 4 or 5).
When the duties of Assistant Superintendent of Police in Nigeria become the duties of ACP, these officers usually work with city crimes, are active in the traffic wing, perform coordination and force tasks, etc. They also excersice control over constables, which is the lowest rank in the police system in our country.
The modern Nigeria Police Force has a rank called Assistant Superintendent of Police. We have described some of the main duties performed by people who in this rank; we hope it was interesting for you to learn a bit more about the ASP rank that was created by the British police many years ago and is still used in several countries, including Nigeria.
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Source: Legit.ng
