Police operations refer to the various Police services provided to citizens and the methods used by the Police agencies: when delivering their services. The Law enforcement code of ethics was approved by the delegates attending the 64th Annual Conference of the IACP in Honolulu Hawaii 1957. The primary responsibilities of the Police were stated therein as: (1) serving the community (2) safe guarding lives and property (3) protecting the innocent (4) keeping the peace and ensuring the rights of all to liberty, equality and justice. The document said further that: a police officer is expected to perform his or her duties impartially, without favour, affection or ill will and without regard to status, political belief or aspiration of a person.

The Police provide services that are both required and expected. In every encounter, police officers present a symbol of authority (The law). And, they are the only public servants without this role. All law enforcement agencies offer an opportunity to serve and help others. The police performance of law enforcement duties makes them the guardians of public morality. The law embodies the collective conscience and morality of society. The police working personality is a factor in law enforcement. Behaviours and attitudes could be attributed to the individual or situation. This could lead to several errors and bias. Law enforcement is a collective goal. The knowledge structure of the Police and the Policed must be complementary. But, where there is social polarization, the police will suffer prejudice and stereotypes. These negative ideas may be due to illusionary correlations.

The Nigeria Police is not indigenized. It still has some elements of colonial hangover. Mr. Alozie Ogubuaja former Police Public Relation Officer, Lagos State Command; propounded the concept of transiting the Nigeria Police Force from a government Police to a people’s Police. This thinking had not been given any thought by policy makers. There had not been any intellectual debate on the issue. Law enforcement response to citizens need had been inadequate. The Police had failed to provide the best of services to the public. If security is collectivized under the concept of people’s Police; Policing services will be people driven and not government driven. The image of the Nigerian Police had been battered, bruised and stained by the media imagery of N20 syndrome.

Yes! Breaches of duty are determined from factual situations. The theory of rotten apple implies that; there are some rotten eggs in the force. The police high command prefers the rotten apple theory because it allows them to blame few individuals for the problems of the force. This theoretical mindset does not address the problems of institutional pathology. The Police are the moral reflection of its service environment. A society gets the Police it deserves. A morally bankrupt society can not have a morally upright Police. A corrupt society can not produce an incorruptible Police force or services. The Police can only be scape-goated: like Caesar’s wife its officers are expected to be morally upright to be able to enforce the law.

But it should be noted that: corruption does not necessarily involve a direct bribe to a Police officer or other criminal justice officials. Money derived from organized crime can be used to support candidates for political office: who then use their influence to prevent investigation for certain criminal activities. Some Police officers become corrupt through socialization. Authority resides in the position rather than within the individual. Good managers’ work well with people, poor managers do not. The Police officers suffer double marginality, when they don’t feel accepted by the public and their superiors. This happens so often in Nigeria.

Regrettably M.D. Abubarkar, when he was appointed the Inspector General of Police in 2012; opened a Pandora box on the Nigeria Police. He said “Our anti robbery squads have become killer teams. The Nigeria Police has fallen to its lowest level. Police duties had become commercialized and provided at the whims and caprices of the highest bidder. Our Police stations, State CIDs and Ops have become business centres and collection points. Our check points had become toll stations”. But, M. D. Abubarkar failed to reform the Police. He left the Police the way he met it. The Police can not be repositioned with cheap talks and public gimmickry. The leadership of the Police is a product of the policing system. They can not shy away from the corruption in the system. David Hume – a philosopher said “The corruption of the best produces the worst”. Operational corruption is fuelled by administrative corruption.

Truthfully, the Police can not police itself. There must be external supervision of the Nigeria Police. The change begins with me campaign should be directed at the Nigeria Police and other agencies providing policing services. The principle of good policing is to reduce distance between police officers and citizens. This will foster an atmosphere of cooperation and mutual respect between the Police and the policed. Once corruption exist, in any system, it becomes endemic and; it is difficult to eliminate it because internal mechanism of control had broken down. In this situation, external corruption control strategies become imperative. A presidential task force on corruption should be constituted to fight corruptive tendencies in the law enforcement agencies. This will drive the change agenda faster and efficiently.

Unarguably, Police services are provided by the Nigeria Police, DSS, Customs, Immigration Services, the Civil Defence, Vehicle Inspection Officers, Road Safety, the Nigerian Army among others. There are about 40,000 separate law enforcement agencies in the United States of America. This large number of Law enforcement Agencies and activities causes jurisdictional disputes among agencies: with resulting confusion and complications. If their efforts are not coordinated or are unknown to each other; they may operate at cross-purpose. It is better to police citizens without provocation.

Thoughtlessly, the public image of policing is heavily influenced by stereotypes. The negative stereotypes view policemen as uneducated, untrained, violent and corrupt. Some criticisms of the police are situationally determined and focus on the job suitability of the police officers. Some, attributional bias toward the Police are egocentric or exhibition of self serving behavior. Occupational sociology examines policing, in terms of the kind of people, who are attracted to the policing job. The Police could only function with the manpower quality available to it.

The media typically report from anti-police perspective. The strategy is “vilify the cops and the intention is to sell their papers”. Police officers are emotionally vulnerable when they suffer social exclusion. They become emotional casualties and cynical towards members of the public. Webster Collegiate Dictionary defines “cynical” as contemptuously distrustful of human nature and motive. Cynical mindset projects negativity. The Police are attitude objects in their service environment. Attitude is defined as a psychological tendency to evaluate a particular entity with some degree of favour or disfavour. Behaviour refers to a person’s overt actions with respect to an attitude object. In some cases, the Police suffer high subjective probability in the performance of its duties. Some people hate the Police because of its press-induced image, others from experiential knowledge.

In conclusion, violent police encounters are sequel to the hyper vigilance of Police officers. Police officers take personal sense of ownership and responsibility for the development of their safety skills, while working in the street environment. Hyper-vigilance triggers neurological functioning in the brain of Police officers. The brain has a set of structures known as the Reticular Activating System (RAS) that determine the level of alertness that is necessary at any given time. Officers with hyper vigilance mindset view every encounter from a threat-based perspective. They take note of all the data available in the environment: creating rapid perception, quick interpretation of events. Maximum street survival skills of police officers; sometimes result in operational fatalities.

When Police officers are overly self protective, operational errors are invertible. The Police killings in America are the consequences of officers with hyper vigilant mindset. Police job is a public safety work and a high stress occupation. Hyper vigilance is a filter through which law enforcement officers views a developing situation. The situation is not different in Nigeria. Addressing the symptom and not the root cause of a problem can be counter productive.

Policing is a body of knowledge with its know-how. Professional opportunists will suffer status anxiety. If police principle of posting is based on “patronage and punishment,” the best professional minded officers will not be given leadership positions. Lobbyist will struggle their way to the top hierarchies of the force. These are political Policemen not professionals. There are 2 ranking structures in the Police. They are: rank in person and rank in task. The Nigerian Police ranking structure is rank in person. Officers carry their ranks as persons not as professionals. Rank in task system produces professional growth alongside with career advancement. There is a compelling need to review the Nigeria Police ranking structure for maximum professionalization. Police should be ranked with professional experience. This will enthrone meritocracy and discourage mediocracy.