Accounting for variation in perception of police

Drawing on data collected from a survey of 334 randomly selected residents in Ile-Ife, Nigeria, this paper explores the perception and factors that contributed to residents’ opinion of the police. The overall result revealed that residents had low satisfaction with the police. It was deducible that satisfaction with the police increases with an increase in residents’ level of education, income status and age. Furthermore, maximum satisfaction was held about the police by residents who felt very much safe in the study area. It was further revealed that satisfaction with the police increases as place of residence changes from a high- to a low-density neighbourhood. The result of multiple ordinary least-squares regression analysis further revealed gender, experience of crime and contact with the police as significant factors in residents’ perception of the police. The study therefore concluded that perception of the police varies between socioeconomic groups and is also influenced by many other contextual factors.