Police ethics and accountability: an examination of unethical conducts and corrupt police practices in Nigeria

Police officers are the first contact persons in the criminal justice system all over the world, and according to the UN criminal justice standards, the goals of policing include preventing criminal activity and resolving day-to-day conflicts among family, friends, and neighbors. But the rampant unethical police practices and the attendant violent and brutal-style policing in Nigeria, for instance, is a major obstacle to “police legitimacy and effectiveness” (Tankebe, Criminology and Criminal Justice 8:185–202, 2008; Bottoms & Tankebe, Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 102:119–170, 2012). This chapter argues that if people’s confidence in the police is low, then there is a problem with effective justice administration. More so, a corrupt national police service leaves its citizenry as potential victims of insecurity and is a disadvantage to the national political economy. For this reason, this paper investigates the social harm (zemiology), criminal conduct (criminology), and victimizing behavior (victimology) of the police (with reference to Nigeria), with a view to understanding the trends and formulating a coordinated and sustainable training program for restorative policing practice, effective and ethical policing, and police legitimacy. This is of global imperative as Smith (Legitimacy and criminal justice, Yale University Press, 2007:30) suggests that existing research on police illegitimacy (or corrupt practices) leaves open the possibility that “prior beliefs in police illegitimacy (or legitimacy) are powerful factors, as particular experiences of the police are shaped by those beliefs or interpreted and perceived to fit with them.” These are clearly important points that we need to address globally as the research agenda on the legitimacy or illegitimacy of policing in the criminal justice system moves forward. The content of this chapter is both practical and analytical because it is an outcome of my personal law enforcement experience, research interviews, and literature evidence conducted in Nigeria.