Police practice and police research in Africa

Police practices in most African countries are inappropriate and fall short of the norms of democratic policing and international human rights provisions. Despite the emerging studies on the problems of the police forces and policing in some of the African nations and how they may be solved or at least mitigated, police authorities have not utilized research findings to reform their policies and practices. Research on police forces and practices in Africa has also not been influenced by the operational and organizational priorities of the practitioners. Therefore, there is a gulf between police practice and police research and between police practitioners and police researchers. In this paper, we analyze (a) the evolution of police forces and nature of police practice; (b) the features of non‐state policing; and (c) the nature and state of police research and its impact on police policy and practice in Africa.