Law enforcers or law breakers? - Beyond corruption, Africans cite brutality

At the country level, although citizens are more likely to encounter the police in situations other than actively asking for assistance (see Figure 3 above), the rate at which they are asked to engage in corruption is often very similar irrespective of the reason for the contact with the police.2 For example, in Liberia, 70% of respondents say they had to pay a bribe to avoid a problem with the po. [...] Interestingly, the police presence and contact index is not significantly correlated with any of the other indices, supporting the earlier suggestion that police presence and contact is likely to be the result of divergent dynamics. [...] Once again, the negative correlation between police presence/contact and trust in the police (r=-.406, p=.010) not only highlights the complicated relationship between police officers and citizens, but also the need to further investigate how police presence and contact could improve citizens’ perceptions of law enforcement. [...] African governments looking to confront the challenges of improving unfavourable public perceptions of the police – and of government performance in the fight against crime – might take a closer look at which dimensions of police performance matter in their country, and which better-performing police forces might have solutions to share. [...] Institute of Peace, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, the Open Society Foundations - Africa, Luminate, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Mastercard Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the European Union Commission, the World Bank Group, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Uganda, the.