Perception and attitude of Nigerian police personnel towards the adoption of spiritual security mechanism for police operations

ABSTRACT

Despite its exclusive reliance on ‘modern’ policing techniques and equipment, the service-delivery capacity of the Nigeria Police Force is still generally on the average. Therefore, this study investigated the perception and attitude of Nigerian police personnel towards the adoption of spiritual security mechanism for police operations. Symbolic interactionism theory was utilised as conceptual framework. Data were elicited from 21 police officers serving at the Oyo State Police Command Criminal Investigation Department and 16 police officials of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad unit using in-depth interview and focus group discussion methods. Most of the respondents acknowledged the existence of spiritual security mechanism. Although some police officials were secretly utilising spiritual security mechanism for criminal investigations, four major factors were identified as constituting barriers to the possibility of incorporating it into police operations.

KEYWORDS:

• Spiritual security mechanism
• police operations
• policing
• Nigeria police force

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Usman Adekunle Ojedokun

Usman Adekunle Ojedokun is a lecturer at the Department of Sociology, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria. He majors in the area of Criminology. His research interests cover the areas of Crime Prevention and Law Enforcement, Policing and Police Studies, Violence, Gender and Cultural Studies.

Chinedu Ernest Dinne

Chinedu Ernest Dinne is a PhD Candidate at the Department of Sociology, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria. He specialises in the area of Criminology and Penology. His research interest includes: Police & Policing, Deviant Behaviour, Peace & Security Studies.