Influence of police stations' location on crime incidence in developing countries like Nigeria

Abstract

Studies on crime incidence believed that presence of police station in an area could reduce crime incidence. Without spatially based study, it might be erroneous to agree with their belief. This study was to ascertain this belief. Geographic information system (GIS) techniques were used to analyse both primary and secondary data acquired in the study area, Akure, Southwestern Nigeria. It was shown that crime incidence continued to increase as distance from police stations increased and started to decrease as distance increased to two kilometres due to reduction in police coverage. Also, the results showed that there was clustered pattern of crimes, the clustering was located at the central part of the study area where the police stations are located. The study concluded that spatial distribution of police stations could influence the pattern of crime incidence in cities.