For every two citizens across Africa, one thinks 'most' or 'all' police officials in their country are corrupt, according to the latest round of continent-wide surveys done by Afrobarometer, a pan-African, non-partisan survey research network that routinely does research on African experiences of democracy, governance, and quality of life.
For every two citizens across Africa, one thinks"most" or"all" police officials in their country are corrupt, according to the latest round of continent-wide surveys done by Afrobarometer, a pan-African, non-partisan survey research network that routinely does research on African experiences of democracy, governance, and quality of life.
Among respondents in the 39-country sample who asked for police assistance during the previous year, more than half say it was"easy" or"very easy" to get the help they needed. More than three-fourths found it easy in Burkina Faso and Mauritius , though no more than half as many say the same in Malawi , Madagascar , and Sudan .
For example, in Liberia, 70% of respondents say they had to pay a bribe to avoid a problem with the police. On the other end of the spectrum, very few were asked to pay a bribe when encountering the police in the Seychelles and Cabo Verde .As part of the data collection process, Afrobarometer field teams made on-the-ground observations to identify facilities and services that are available in each census enumeration area they visit or"within easy walking distance.
Similarly, police presence tended to be much higher in EAs with better road infrastructure: 66% in areas with paved, tarred, or concrete roads, compared to 36% in EAs with earth, gravel, stone, or murram roads. In fact, 44% of the poorest respondents who had contact with the police during the previous year say they had to pay a bribe to avoid a problem, almost twice as many as in the well-off group . While rural residents are less likely than urbanites to encounter the police, they are more likely to have to pay a bribe when they do .
The perception of widespread criminality among the police is shared by more than half of citizens in Lesotho and Senegal . At the other extreme, majorities in six countries say criminal activity by the police is rare or unheard of: Benin , Ethiopia , Tanzania , Morocco , Mauritania , and Burkina Faso .
The perception of frequent police brutality in dealing with suspected criminals is most common in Senegal , Gabon , Tunisia , and Lesotho , while about one in five citizens say the same in Mauritius , Madagascar , and Seychelles . Makanga and Kroenke said without this public trust, it is more difficult for the police to get public support for crime prevention measures, community safety initiatives and criminal investigations.
In his recent paper,"The Causes of Police Corruption and Working towards Prevention in Conflict-stricken states," Danny Singh from the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Teesside University, U.K, says, the police are the initial faces of law enforcement and often initiate the criminal justice process and thus hold significant responsibility for functioning law and order.
Dr Asiimwe further went ahead and contextualized the reason as to why the police are perceived as"most corrupt and brutal" by most African citizens. He told The Independent that the police interface more with people in the communities compared to, for instance, the military."If the army had the same level of regular engagement with civilians, they too would be perceived the same way," he said.
Dr. Asiimwe says a combination of poor standards and lack of values to guide most of the police institutions on the continent explains their performance and relations with citizens.Afrobarometer scored each of the police in the surveyed countries by creating four indices that combine respondents' personal experiences with broader perceptions of the police by averaging several questions for each dimension .
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