Policies and Practice of Force in Nigerian Policing: A Case Study of Yelwa Division Bauchi Police Command
Article Sidebar
Page Numbers:
182-197
Digital Object Identifier:
10.58578/ijhess.v3i1.4717
Viewed: 294 times
Downloaded: 212 times
LYAS Publisher cordially invites qualified professionals to serve as Editors or Reviewers. Your expertise will make an important contribution to maintaining and strengthening the academic quality of our publications. Interested applicants are kindly requested to complete the application form at the following link: Editors & Reviewers
Please feel free to contact us if you need any further information about the submission process or if you have any additional questions.
Authors:
Idrees Abdullahi Uwais1*, Ibrahim Adamu Shehu2, Maryam Sanusi Maijama'a3, Abdullatif Isa Gwani4, Usman Muhammad Sulaiman5 
Copyright :
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication.
Main Article Content
Abstract
This study aims to evaluate the policies and practice of force in Nigerian policing in yelwa division Bauchi Police command. The research objectives: know the mechanisms in existing policies that police use for mitigating excessive force, analyze the impact of police accountability mechanisms on public trust and community relations, evaluate the effectiveness of existing policies that police use in mitigating incidents of excessive force, assess the influence of training in de-escalation techniques and to access the implicit bias recognition on police officers' use of force in Yelwa division Bauchi Police command. This study employed survey research technique and developed a set of structured questionnaire as instrument utilized in collecting primary data. The data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical techniques to provide a comprehensive overview of the respondents' perceptions and experiences. The findings indicate that majority of respondents believe that these mechanisms have increased trust and improved community relations, though some still report no change or a decrease in trust, respondents generally perceive existing policies as moderately effective in reducing excessive force, there is room for improvement. The study concludes that current policies require enhancement to improve their effectiveness in addressing excessive force. It recommended that regular policy reviews, improved community engagement, and enhanced transparency in accountability mechanisms. Additionally, it suggests the implementation of continuous training programs to better support officers in de-escalation and bias recognition. Limitations include a small sample size and variability in respondents' perceptions, which underscores the need for further research with a larger and more diverse sample to validate and expand upon these findings.
Downloads
Article Details
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
References
Alpert, G. P., & Smith, M. R. (1999). Police use-of-force data: Where we are and where we should be going. Police Quarterly, 2(1), 57–78. https://doi.org/10.1177/109861119900200103
Alpert, G. P., & Smith, W. C. (1994). How reasonable is the reasonable man?: Police and excessive force. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 85(2), 481-501.
Alpert, G. P., & Walker, S. (2000). Police accountability and early warning systems: Developing policies and programs. Justice Research and Policy, 2(2), 59–72. https://doi.org/10.3818/JRP.2.2.2000.59
Ang, D. (2020). The effects of police violence on inner-city students. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 136(1), 115–168. https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjaa027
Ariel, B., Farrar, W. A., & Sutherland, A. (2015). The effect of police body-worn cameras on use of force and citizens’ complaints against the police: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 31(3), 509–535. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10940-014-9236-3
Baude, W. (2018). Is qualified immunity unlawful? California Law Review, 106(1), 45–90.
Bittner, E. (1970). The functions of the police in modern society. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Black, D., Broughton, E. T., & White, S. (2020). Internal review processes and police accountability: An empirical analysis. Law and Society Review, 54(4), 733-752.
Bloom, R. M., &Labovich, N. (2021). The challenge of deterring bad police behavior: Implementing reforms that hold police accountable. Case Western Reserve Law Review, 71(3), 924–985.
Bor, J., Venkataramani, A. S., Williams, D. R., & Tsai, A. C. (2018). Police killings and their spillover effects on the mental health of Black Americans: A population-based, quasi-experimental study. The Lancet, 392(10144), 302–310. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31130-9
Boxer, P., Brunson, R. K., Gaylord-Harden, N., Kahn, K., Patton, D. U., Richardson, J., Rivera, L. M., Smith Lee, J. R., Staller, M. S., Krahé, B., Dubow, E. F., Parrott, D., &Algrim, K. (2021). Addressing the inappropriate use of force by police in the United States and beyond: A behavioral and social science perspective. Aggressive Behavior, 47(5), 502–512. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.21970
Braga, A. A., MacDonald, J. M., & McCabe, J. (2022). Body-worn cameras, lawful police stops, and NYPD officer compliance: A cluster randomized controlled trial. Criminology, 60(1), 124–158. https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9125.12293
Braga, A. A., Sousa, W. H., Coldren, J. R., & Rodriguez, D. (2018). The effects of body-worn cameras on police activity and police-citizen encounters: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, 108(3), 511–538. https://www.webofscience.com/wos/woscc/fullrecord/WOS:000434956100003
Campaign Zero. (2022). End qualified immunity: Research basis.
CCJ Task Force on Policing. (2021a). Decertification: Policy assessment. https://assets.foleon.com/eu-west-2/uploads-7e3kk3/41697/decertification.d1229f8ea972.pdf
CCJ Task Force on Policing. (2021b). Implicit bias training: Policy assessment. https://assets.foleon.com/eu-central-1/de-uploads7e3kk3/41697/implicit_bias.524b7c301e55.pdf
Cohen, J. (2021). De-escalation training and its effect on police use of force. Police Quarterly, 24(1), 45-62.