Public Perception of Police Officers

To generate an understanding of the public’s perception of police officers has taken precedence for reform efforts in recent years, especially in post-colonial societies like Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) with the aim of getting their police institutions to forge closer working relations with their citizens. Developing closer and harmonious relationships between citizens and the police bodies are more likely to foster and increase public trust and confidence in officers, implement consolidated working relationships between both parties and reduce citizens fear of crime, especially when the increasing crime rate in T&T during the past two decades has been considered out of control. Due to the lack of research on the subject of policing and furthermore on the public perception of police officers in T&T, this study was aimed at addressing the deficiencies in the literature by providing insights and understanding on the perception of police officers through the following research questions: (I) What are the variables that affect citizens perception of the police in T&T? (II) Do citizens demographic characteristics affect their relationship with the police and if yes, how and why? (III) In what ways can citizens perception of the police in T&T be improved? This study used a qualitative approach in order to bring some prospective on citizens subjective experiences by interviewing 50 adult members of the public within two geographic locations in T&T relative to people and police, contact, legitimacy, services and performance. The snowball sampling technique was used to obtain participants and the adaptive theory approach was used to analyse the data obtained. The study focused on key variables such as contact, age, socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, police behaviour and justice. The results obtained suggested that these key variables were consistent with previous studies, however, new Page | 3 variables such as politics, gender and gang involvement were identified and acknowledged as being further responsible for how citizens perception of the police in T&T are shaped. As a result, the theoretical concepts used in this study could be expanded to include these new variables. The findings from this study suggested that the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) colonial legacy have an active participation on the role and function of the police in T&T and this created an impact on the performance of the police. This study further suggested that police reform in T&T would become an important factor for improving the public’s perception of police officers. Because of previous failed police reform attempts in T&T where officers were identified as being reluctant to participate, this study has proposed training methods to improve officers’ attitude towards accepting changes as an initial priority before applying methods to improve the relationship with the public.