Abstract
This study critically examined the attitude of the Nigerian Police Force towards the public in Wukari, Taraba State. It focused on police-public interactions, factors influencing police attitudes, and their implication on public trust. A convergent mixed-methods case study design was adopted for this study. The quantitative aspect of the study involved distributing structured questionnaires to one hundred and twenty (120) community members who had prior interactions with the police. In the qualitative component, fifteen (15) respondents were purposively selected for semistructured interviews. The quantitative data were analysed using frequencies, percentages, means, and standard deviation. While thematic analysis was done for the qualitative data. The study found that the public had negative perceptions about the attitudes of the police in Wukari, Taraba State, towards the community. Ordinary members of the public gave a mean score of 2.28 on police’s level of respect and approachability, professionalism, fairness, integrity, responsiveness, and willingness to take responsibility for their actions and accept training. However, the public showed a positive attitude towards ethical reforms, accountability, and police training with a mean score of 4.06. The study also found that the public expressed a low level of trust in the police with a mean score of 2.87. The qualitative analysis also revealed that the public viewed the police as being disrespectful, corrupt, extortionate, and lacking accountability and responsible use of authority. The study concluded that negative police attitudes reduced public confidence and trust in the police and affected policecommunity relationships. The study recommended increased ethical training, leadership, and police accountability to enhance professionalism and public trust and police legitimacy in Wukari, Taraba State.
Keywords: Police attitude, Nigerian Police Force, police-public relations, public trust, procedural justice.
Author name(s):
Ogaba Solomon Isenyo
Department of Philosophy, Federal
University Wukari,
Taraba State, Nigeria
ORCID ID: 0000-0001-8826-9685
Yohanna Amachondi Hikon
Department of Philosophy, Federal
University Wukari,
Taraba State, Nigeria
Ganchuk Cynthia
Department of Philosophy, Federal
University Wukari,
Taraba State, Nigeria
DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23090615
Copyright © [2026] The Author(s). Published by the Journal of People and Worldviews (JPW). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are properly credited.