Police Use of Force and the Problem of Accountability in Nigeria

While public trust and cooperation with the police have long been addressed in the policing literature, most of the existing studies have explored a limited pool of correlates. In particular, constructs and concepts such as use of force and police abuse of power are noticeably absent from much of the research on trust and cooperation with the police. Also sparse are transcultural applicability of these constructs vis-à-vis perceptions of police legitimacy in developing contexts. In this presentation, I will be presenting some preliminary findings on use of force data collected from a cross-sectional survey in Nigeria. The result show, to some extent, that when police are consistently associated with violence, public normative commitments and the willingness to trust and cooperate with the police might diminish. The study raises a lot of concerns about the fundamental purpose of the police. Implications of the study are discussed.