(PDF) Exploring the Factors that Affect Citizens' Trust in Bangladesh Police
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Abstract
Key Takeaways
Introduction
Background of the Study
Significance of the Study
Research Question
Theoretical Framework of the Study
Study Methodology
Findings of the Study
Discussion and Conclusion
References
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Exploring the Factors that Affect Citizens' Trust in Bangladesh Police
Mizanur Rahman
2017
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Abstract
Trust in police depends both on individual police officer as well as on police as an institution. It is the psychological attitude of citizen towards police regarding their behavior and actions, and at the same time, citizens would assess the performance of police in parlance of institutional perspective i.e. to what extent policemen would meaningfully implement the rules, standard operating procedures, and their official duties. The objective of the study is to explore the factors that explain variations in citizens' trust in Bangladesh police. The study followed both survey and interview methods which were conducted in two different locations in Bangladesh; one urban and one rural area. Along with the citizens, experts and police officials were also interviewed. The police officials were from different units (RAB, DB, DMP, and Range) and different levels of hierarchy. The present study echoes the previous findings of PPG program's trust survey conducted in 2015. According to PPG survey, 43% of citizens' do have trust in the police while the present study shows the almost same level of trust (45%). Major findings of the study are: i) citizens have good accessibility to the police in terms of lodging complaints, although the reason for reporting is rarely related to trust, rather they do report to the police since they do not find any other option; ii) the acceptance level of any corrupt behaviors like bribing for speeding up the work is not accepted at all by the citizens, regardless of their own ethical viewpoint; iii) a number of respondents consider that performance of police is not satisfactory, yet many believe that police performance is progressively increasing and attitude towards the police is getting positive; iv) political interference in recruitment, promotion, transfer etc. is a big barrier, plus paying bribes for such issues have a negative impact on the performance; v) citizens having more trust in ruling party are prone to have more trust in police, vi) citizens' trust female police more than the male counterpart, and (vii) different governance indicators of police have a strong effect on forming trust among the citizens. Better governance induces better trust among citizen.
Key takeaways
AI
Citizens' trust in Bangladesh police increased from 43% to 45% between 2015 and 2016.
Accessibility to police for lodging complaints does not correlate with trust levels.
Political interference significantly undermines police performance and citizen trust.
Citizens trust female police more than male counterparts, citing higher integrity.
Good governance indicators strongly correlate with citizens' trust in police.
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Democracy and Governance 41
Chapter 2
Exploring the Factors that Affect
Citizens’ Trust in Bangladesh Police
Md. Akram Hossain & Mizanur Rahman
Abstract
Trust in police depends both on individual police oficer as well as on police
as an institution. It is the psychological attitude of citizen towards police
regarding their behavior and actions, and at the same time, citizens would assess
the performance of police in parlance of institutional perspective i.e. to what
extent policemen would meaningfully implement the rules, standard operating
procedures, and their oficial duties. The objective of the study is to explore
the factors that explain variations in citizens’ trust in Bangladesh police. The
study followed both survey and interview methods which were conducted in two
different locations in Bangladesh; one urban and one rural area. Along with the
citizens, experts and police oficials were also interviewed. The police oficials
were from different units (RAB, DB, DMP, and Range) and different levels of
hierarchy. The present study echoes the previous indings of PPG program’s trust
survey conducted in 2015. According to PPG survey, 43% of citizens’ do have
trust in the police while the present study shows the almost same level of trust
(45%).
Major indings of the study are: i) citizens have good accessibility to the police in
terms of lodging complaints, although the reason for reporting is rarely related
to trust, rather they do report to the police since they do not ind any other option;
ii) the acceptance level of any corrupt behaviors like bribing for speeding up
the work is not accepted at all by the citizens, regardless of their own ethical
viewpoint; iii) a number of respondents consider that performance of police
is not satisfactory, yet many believe that police performance is progressively
increasing and attitude towards the police is getting positive; iv) political
interference in recruitment, promotion, transfer etc. is a big barrier, plus paying
bribes for such issues have a negative impact on the performance; v) citizens
having more trust in ruling party are prone to have more trust in police, vi)
citizens’ trust female police more than the male counterpart, and (vii) different
governance indicators of police have a strong effect on forming trust among the
citizens. Better governance induces better trust among citizen.
42 Exploring the Factors that Affect Citizens’ Trust in Bangladesh Police
A number of factors have been identiied which may affect the citizens’ trust in
Bangladesh police. Some positive factors about police are: ‘more responsive
than the past’, ‘reach the crime scene quickly’, ‘more transparent’, ‘more visible
in patrolling and trafic control’ and last but not the least, their attitude is getting
more friendly and polite. On the other hand, few dark aspects are: ‘police harass
people for bribes’, ‘do not pay adequate attention to the people without political
connection’, and abuse their entrusted power’.
The police oficials claimed that other sectors (like customs, tax) have corruption
too, but everybody pointing more at the police due to its visibility of corruption.
Corruption in other sectors usually involves two parties in which corruption
occurs in a win-win situation, while at least three parties are involved in any
police case and there is always a losing side, even though when no corruption
occurs. Therefore, it is dificult to compare police with other government sectors
in terms of corruption. Political interference is another barrier to carry out the
responsibilities of police smoothly. Faulty recruitment system at departmental
level spreads distrust among citizens. All time in work (without having any
speciic ofice hour) is one of the reasons that undermine the performance of the
police.
After synthesizing citizens, police and experts’ opinion and contemporary
literature, some policy suggestions are proposed to expand citizens’ trust:
updating the existing law, combating the most visible form of corruption (ex:
bribe to trafic police), building positive media image and increasing online
presence, training on customer relation in order to induce more friendly attitude
among police towards citizens, fair recruitment, promotion & transfer, strong
community policing, ensuring people’s participation in campaigning, non-
interference and inally enhancing good governance in police department.
Democracy and Governance 43
Introduction
Law enforcement unit is one of the most crucial parts of the governance in
a democratic society. It is extremely signiicant for any law enforcement
organization like police to receive public cooperation and their trust
through performing benevolent acts and behaviors. Of different law
enforcement units, the present study will only be conined to the prime
institutions of regulatory control, ‘police’. Citizens’ trust is essential to
police institutions, particularly in democratic societies in which the police
have to ‘earn’ legitimacy for their actions from citizens (Boateng, 2012,
p. 4). The usual trend of law enforcement agencies’ administration is to
highlight the crime statistics. They generally assess their performance
using statistics related to crime control (Çakar, 2015, p. 1383). These
statistics are important pointer for gauging the performance of police,
but it is also important to measure public opinion towards police. “How
people conceptualize and evaluate the police can shape the way they
respond to the police, the political support and cooperation they render
to police and their willingness to comply with the law and participate in
crime control initiatives” (Wu, Poteyeva and Sun, 2012, p. 189). Hence,
understanding the citizens’ perceptions and insights regarding trust
towards the police is so vital.
Present study, therefore, focuses on the citizens’ trust in policing which
has been reckoned with the operational aspect of the Bangladesh police.
Citizens put on trust or distrust in police based on their perception
about performance, modus operandi, corruption and the legitimacy
issue of police. Public perception of police image is dependent upon the
visible services they render to the society, and experiences of citizens
themselves, their family, friends or neighbor with police.
Background of the study
Bangladesh police is the key institution for law enforcement at internal
level of the country with the responsibility for ensuring security of
citizens and their properties, maintain peace and also deal with crime in
the society. To perform these responsibilities effectively, they must need
citizens’ supports and cooperation which will ultimately come from the
mutual respect and trust. The vision and mission of Bangladesh police
also emphasize much on public trust and cooperation apart from the
qualiication of police oficials.
44 Exploring the Factors that Affect Citizens’ Trust in Bangladesh Police
The vision statement of Bangladesh police says that “To provide quality
service by competent, eficient and dedicated professionals enjoying
trust and respect of citizens to make Bangladesh a better and safer place
to live” (website: Bangladesh Police). The mission of Bangladesh police
also conforms that they need active support of the community to perform
their duties effectively. Citizens’ trust has been given utmost importance
for ensuring better performance of police whereas Bangladesh police
still in quite critical position in terms of public trust. Unfortunately,
they carry the germs of public distrust spreads out by the British during
the initiation of policing system in the Indian subcontinent. However,
different surveys carried out over the years observed counterintuitive
and mixed indings about citizens’ trust in Bangladesh police.
Trust in Police
60% 55%
53%
50%
49% 43%
37%
40% 37%
30%
20%
16%
10%
0%
1996 2002 2008 2009 2011 2014 2015
Graph 1: Level of Trust in Bangladesh Police in Different Surveys from
1996-2015
1 2
Sources: Compilation of Askvik & Jamil (2013) , CARI (2008) , the Daily
Star-Nielsen survey (2011), SDSA II (2014) & Trust Survey 2015
of PPG Program
The above table shows a constant luctuation in citizens’ trust in the
police department of Bangladesh. The level of trust reached at 53% in
Askvik, S. & Jamil, I (2013). The Institutional Trust Paradox in Bangladesh. Public
Organization Review.
Monem, M., Khan, S.O. & Baniamin, H.M. (2008). Bangladesh Police: Institutional
Status, Current Status of Service Deliver: An Empirical Study. Center for Administrative
Research and Innovation (CARI), University of Dhaka.
Democracy and Governance 45
2002 from 49% in 1996, signiicantly decreased to 37% in 2008 and
reached the lowest level of trust (only 16%) in 2009. The data mentioned
in the Daily Star-Nielsen survey (2011), citizens’ trust increased sharply
to 55% in 2011. The SDSA II and PPG survey data revealed that the level
of trust in the police is 37% in 2014 and 43% in 2015.
Studies conducted by the UNDP’s Police Reform Program (PRP) and
BRAC University found 75% citizens are satisied with the performance
of police in maintaining law and order situation ((UNDP, 2011; IGS,
2010), another study shows 76% of users are satisied with the services
provided by the police station under DMP (Ahmed 2013) and according
to the Daily Star-Nielsen survey (2011) 55% respondents perceived that
the law and order situation has been improved over the last two years in
the country.
On the contrary, some literatures take us to quite opposite direction.
Uslaner (2013) argued that trust and corruption shape each other, and
there is a negative relation between them; corruption leads to less trust,
in similar fashion high trust leads to less corruption. At the same time,
the level of corruption in the system of government decreases trust in
police (Kääriäinen, 2007, p. 428). The position of Bangladesh regarding
corruption in the last few reports of Transparency International (Global
Corruption Barometer) – TI index were not so appealing that may boost
up the level of trust in any government agency including Bangladesh
police. In the reports, police were labeled as one of the most corrupt
departments of Bangladesh government. Moreover, TI household survey
2015 found that 74% households have been victimized or affected by
Law enforcement agencies. In this milieu, citizens’ trust in Bangladesh
police is not supposed to be as high as it was found in different surveys
or studies mentioned earlier.
In this backdrop, it is enough provocative to explore the factors behind
the high citizens’ trust (53%) and look into the explanation for least trust
(16%). The trend triggers the succeeding questions: why the level of trust
is luctuating such a haphazard way? Which factor matters most both in
positive as well as negative direction for trust in Bangladesh police?
Transparency International (TI) ranked Bangladesh as the most corrupt country in the
world for ive consecutive years (from year 2001 to year 2005). In 2016, Bangladesh held
15th position (Source: TI’s Website (https://www.ti-bangladesh.org/beta3/index.php/en/).
46 Exploring the Factors that Affect Citizens’ Trust in Bangladesh Police
History of Bangladesh police
The history of Bangladesh police started in the very early days of Indian
subcontinent (Islam & Ali, 2008, p.1) when there was a workable
system of police administration in about 400-500 AD. Policing was
conined, during Kautilya period, to collect information about the anti-
governmental activities and to maintain law and order in the society.
During medieval period of the Muslim king Sultan, the oficial who
performed the duties of policing as the chief of police was called
Muhtasib while Kotwals were responsible for performing police duties
in urban areas (Bangladesh Police, 2010, p. 1).The Mughal Emperor
Akbar, in his administrative system, appointed Kotwal as the chief
of police in larger cities. Later, this Kotwal emerged as an important
institution of Mughal Emperor. The tradition of Kotwal police was also
introduced in Dhaka city and there are still many Kotwali police stations
in Bangladesh (Islam & Ali, 2008, p.1).
The present day of Bangladesh police owed much to the colonial legacy of
the British in terms of its structure, functions and regulatory mechanisms.
The British introduced the irst organized policing in the subcontinent by
the promulgation of the Police Act, 1861 in the aftermath of the Mutiny
of 1857-the First War of Independence. The police was then modeled by
the then rulers in the pattern of militaristic Irish constabulary with a major
objective to control and subjugate the community, as the mass revolution
signaled distrust between the ruler and the ruled. The act started with a
goal statement that it is expedient to re-organize the police and to make
it a more eficient instrument for the prevention and detection of crime.
But in practice, police was used as a coercive instrument to keep the
community under control crushing rebellion and any movement for
self-government. The present police of Bangladesh remain same in its
structure, coercive nature and administrative systems as it was in British
and Pakistan era. Although, the country, Bangladesh has marched ahead
towards democratic system having extensive changes in governance and
economic issues, but the British legislated Police Act 1861 still continues
without any massive reforms or amendments (Daruwala et. al. 2005;
Mehtab & Rahman 2014). Bangladesh police are performing according
to the speciied job responsibilities mentioned in the act.
Bangladesh Police has its own administrative set up in urban and
rural areas. Moreover, there are Court Police, Railway Police, Trafic
Police, Water Police, Armed Police Battalion, Mounted Police under
Democracy and Governance 47
the dispensation of the police force. Administrative unit of police are
designated as Dhaka Range, Chittagong Range, Khulna Range, Rajshahi
Range, Barisal Range, Sylhet Range and Sardah Police Academy. All the
metropolitan cities of Bangladesh have their own metropolitan police
(Chowdhury, 1997, p. 95). In all the 64 districts, police has three tier
administration under the authority of SP, ASP (circle), and Oficer in
Charge (OC) of the police stations respectively.
After the partition of the Sub-continent in 1947, police force in
Bangladesh was irst named as East Bengal Police, and the police force
of Pakistan continued the system of British period (website: Bangladesh
Police).After the independence of Bangladesh on 16 December 1971,
the existing police force of Bangladesh got remodeled and reshaped
as Bangladesh Police. Bangladesh Police works under the Ministry of
Home Affairs as the central law enforcement agency of the country.
Bangladesh police have also been serving in different UN mission since
1989 where it acts as one of the top contributing countries in UN peace
keeping initiatives.
Signiicance of the study
The way general people respond, extend support and render their warm
cooperation to police, depend on their perceptions and evaluation about
the police (Wu and Sun, 2009, p. 170). Several studies have been initiated
around the world, conducted by different disciplines including Economics,
Criminology, and Public Policy & Administration, about citizens’ trust
in public institutions. Recently, there has been an exponential increase
in research on trust (Kääriäinen, 2007, p. 409) which scrutinizes the
level of trust in different sectors of government, including the police
department. But hardly any study explains the variance of citizen trust in
police, except some studies have been conducted in the USA since 1960s
to identify the perception of citizens about the US police (Wuand Sun,
2009, p. 170).
The empirical research in the ield seems to be concentrated mainly in
the United States (Kääriäinen, 2007, p. 410). Later on, only few similar
studies were conducted in European countries. But there is a lack of
empirical study that explores diverse factors inluencing citizens’ trust in
police in the southern part of the world. Only a few studies are found in
the context of China. Similar studies have recently started to take place
48 Exploring the Factors that Affect Citizens’ Trust in Bangladesh Police
in Bangladesh, particularly from the last decade. Some of the important
surveys and studies have been conducted under the UNDP Police Reform
Programme (UNDP, 2003, 2009, 2011 & 2014), Police Commission of
Bangladesh (Khan et. al., 1989), and some literatures by some individual
researchers (Ahmed & Uddin, 2013; Huda, 2009; Islam & Ali, 2008) and
different dailies (The Daily Star-Nielsen, 2011; The Independent, 2015).
Most studies in Bangladesh have been made on the topic of public
satisfaction with the performance of the police. The present study went
beyond just inding the satisfaction level of citizen with the police, it
attempted to identify how it varies in terms of various individual and
contextual variables and to explore the major reasons of the present
level of citizens’ trust in Bangladesh police. It will be fascinating to
know the reasons of why the citizens of Bangladesh, one of the most
corrupted countries, put trust in their police department. There is a lack
of suficient empirical research about citizens’ perceptions about police
in Bangladesh. The present study tries to identify the explanations behind
the high or low level of citizens’ trust in Bangladesh police and thus, it
will contribute in the trust literature.
Research question
In the above backdrop, the following research questions are developed
in the present study:
Q1. What are the factors that caused variations in citizens’ trust in
Bangladesh police?
Q2. Why does the level of citizens’ trust in Bangladesh police increase
in recent times?
Q3. Are police becoming truly more trustworthy to citizens?
Concept: Citizen trust in police
Despite large volumes of books and articles have been published, there
is no universally accepted deinition of trust. Rousseau et al. (1998)
suggested a deinition that catches a central aspect of many attempts to
deine the concept:
Democracy and Governance 49
“Trust is a psychological state comprising the intention to
accept vulnerability based upon positive expectations of the
intentions or behavior of another”.
In above deinition, there are two core ideas: “willingness to be
vulnerable” and the “positive expectations” of the intentions or behavior
of another. Vulnerability implies that a person is ready to take a risk in
relation to another actor i.e. to expose him/herself to the possibility that
the other may act in a way that has harmful consequences (Steinar, 2011,
p. 93).
Citizens’ trust in public institutions like police has different connotation
which mainly includes the service delivery to the people. As Sztompka
(1999, cited in Jamil and Askvik, 2003, p. 153) mentioned that citizens’
trust in public institutions cover the following three aspects of service
delivery
¢ What extent people have conidence in incumbents of public ofices
based on how they behave and act according to institutional norms,
¢ What extent public oficials are accessible, helpful, friendly and
responsive to citizen’s needs, demands and aspirations
¢ What extent these demands are fulilled.
In literatures, trust in individuals is more commonly used, in contrast
to trust in institutions, which is more “controversial” and “abstract”.
An institution has several rules, roles, procedures, and norms, and the
employees are responsible to put these into practice. In case of a police
station, police oficer would mainly implement the rules, standard
operating procedures, and oficial roles they are given (Askvik 2007, p.
70; Sztompka 1999, p. 43in Jamil and Aksvik, 2015, p. 159).Similarly,
Askvik (2011, p.94) argued that the trust in public institutions includes
the positive expectations of citizens about the public oficials that they
will follow oficial procedures in order to produce beneicial outcomes
(Askvik, 2011, p. 94).
A more speciic deinition of trust in police is given by Goldsmith (2003)
where he argued that trust is linked to the capacity of police to provide
basic citizen security. Trust, through its presumption of benevolence,
dedication and a shared ethical framework (Six, 2003), also enables
50 Exploring the Factors that Affect Citizens’ Trust in Bangladesh Police
police legitimacy-the judgment that ordinary citizens make about the
rightfulness of police conduct and the organizations that employ and
supervise them (National Research Council, 2004, p. 291 in Boateng,
2012, p, 4).
Based on the above perspectives and deinitions, citizens’ trust in police
can be formulated in the following way for the present study:
Trust in police depends both on individual police oficers as
well as on police as an institution. It is the psychological
attitude of citizen towards police regarding their behavior
and actions, and at the same time, citizens would assess the
performance of police in parlance of institutional perspective
i.e. to what extent policemen would meaningfully implement
the rules, standard operating procedures, and their oficial
duties and responsibilities.
Theoretical framework of the study
The model developed by Kim has been widely used to measure
citizens’ trust in public institutions. As the indicators of institutional
trustworthiness, Kim (2005) identiied ive major dimensions which
are credible commitments, benevolence, honesty, competency and
fairness. Jamil and Askvik (2013) employed four dimensions, based on
Kim’s (2005) model, to measure the trustworthiness of civil servants in
Bangladesh and Nepal: (a) Promptness and eficiency, (b) Corruption,
(c) Friendliness and helpfulness, and (d) Predictability and reliability in
service provision.
Over the last four decades, researcher and policy makers examined citizen
opinions about the police in terms of understanding various factors of
trust. Most studies examined the variation in certain socio-demographic
characteristics to explain the level of trust in police (Çakar, 2015, p.
1383). Wu and Sun (2009), took China as their case of study where they
covered a number of factors to measure citizens’ trust in police. In order
to observe the variation of trust among different social groups, they used
some socio-demographic variables like gender, age, education, income
and employment status. Besides, a few other variables related to the
performance of police and government, were also incorporated in the
study, such as: government dealing with crime, corruption, fear of crime,
and quality of citizens’ life.
Democracy and Governance 51
Subsequently, Wu et al. (2012) conducted another similar study, where
they made a comparison between two countries regarding the citizens’
trust in police. Their study assessed the relative explanatory power of
three competing theoretical perspectives:
i). The social structural thesis,
ii). The institutional performance perspective, and
iii). The cultural perspective. In order to explain trust in police they
employed following variables resulted from these three theses:
The social structural Age, Female, Married, Social
Demographics
thesis status, Urban
The institutional Sense of safety, Victimization,
Police
performance Dificult police help, Easy
performance
perspective police help
Government Responsiveness, Corruption,
performance Macroeconomic conditions
Interpersonal trust, Orientations
The cultural Cultural
toward authority, Orientations
perspective inluence
toward conlict
In the USA, several projects on public attitudes toward the police were
undertaken in the late 1960’s, sparked by a series of summer riots in
urban ghettos (Jesilow, Meyer and Namazzi, 1995, p.67). These studies
found widespread satisfaction with the police. As a result, it became the
trend that researchers used to ask citizens to respond to the statement
like “the police do a good job”, with possible answer option ranges from
“strongly agree” to “strongly disagree”. This approach provided very
little information and/or no information about the image of police or
citizens’ trust in police. In this context, Jesilow, Meyer and Namazzi
took a different approach where they collected demographic information
(age, sex, education, ethnicity, occupation, type of residence, economic
status of the neighborhood, years at address, number of encounters
with the police in the last year, and the type of police encounter). They
speciically wanted to know what they liked best and least about the
police. They created a list of variables consisted of the total number of
positive items a respondent mentioned when asked “What do you like
best about the police?” in order to measure the performance of police.
52 Exploring the Factors that Affect Citizens’ Trust in Bangladesh Police
The analytical framework of the present study has been developed based
on the studies discussed above. One of the prime objectives of this study
is to identify the factors those inluence citizens’ trust in Bangladesh
police both in individual and institutional perspectives. In line with the
objective of the present study, the current research picked its variables
that can explain citizens’ trust in police and identify the reasons why it
varies.
Study methodology
The study applied both qualitative and quantitative methods for data
collection from surrounding areas of two police stations. The study
administered 60 structured questionnaires as well as semi-structured
interview guide speciically tailored for 20 in-depth interviews including
5 police oficers. The usual trend of trust related study is conducting
a survey to capture the perception of citizens in particular group of
individuals or institutions. But survey does not answer the inner reasons
of such trust or distrust. Hence, the study incorporated the qualitative
in-depth interviews to provide the answer to the question: why trust
in police has changed arbitrarily over the last few years in which is
counter intuitive as there is found no remarkable improvement in their
performance.
The respondents of the study were randomly selected following
convenience and snow ball sampling techniques where gender,
profession and educational qualiications were taken into consideration.
The citizens who have personal or family experience in dealing with
police were given preference during the selection of samples for in-
depth interviews. Interviews of police oficials provided the opportunity
to get their views on the negative perception against them and also to
cross check the citizen responses. The in-depth interview was basically
qualitative in nature and researchers tried to extract few individual case
studies whenever it was possible. The aim of the in-depth interview was
to bring about some insight on the reasons of citizens’ trust in police,
why do people have high/low trust in police, what are the factors that
cause variation of citizens’ trust in police. In addition to it, interviews
of police oficials provided the opportunity to cross check the citizen
responses.
Democracy and Governance 53
4 5
Besides, existing trust related survey data of PPG Program , SDSA and
other related study indings were considered in the analysis. Relevant
literature in books, journals, newspapers and other sources were also
explored to substantiate the arguments of this study.
Dependent variable - ‘Trust in Police’
The dependent variable of the study is trust in police. Data were
collected in two ways: a quantitative survey and in-depth interviews. In
the survey, dependent variable ‘trust’ was measured by a single item of
question: how much trust respondents have in Bangladesh police? The
respondents were given a 7 points scale to categorize their trust level
where 1 indicates no trust all and 7 means very high trust.
Some hypothetical situations were created during in-depth interview
to capture the citizens’ perception about police. General people are
usually suspicious of talking about sensitive issues like police, politics,
corruption and so forth. So they may feel uncomfortable in providing
direct answer, or even they might refuse to provide answers during the
interview session. To minimize it, the interview guide incorporated few
real life situations where they need to seek police attention.
Independent variables
A number of possible factors which may have some impacts or inluences
on the citizens’ trust in police are identiied, such as:
Performance of police
The study looked at how citizen evaluated the performance of police
based on their own interaction with the police. Individual judgment can
inluence the trust in police. People have their own judgment that can
PPG Program of North South University, Bangladesh conducted a survey on ‘Governance
and Citizens’ Trust’ in Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. The survey conducted in 2015 in
Bangladesh with a sample size of 2748 respondents.
State of Democracy in South Asia (SDSA) is global barometer survey conducted by
CSDS, Delhi, India in 6 SAARC countries in 2010 (SDSA I) and in 2014-2015 (SDSA II).
PPG Program conducted Bangladesh part of the SDSA II survey in 2015 with a sample
size of 3000 respondents.
54 Exploring the Factors that Affect Citizens’ Trust in Bangladesh Police
inluence their trust in police. The study basically tried to examine, ‘to
what extent people are satisied with the way police dealt their reported
complaint’. Performance of police is measured here using some direct
questions and some indicators such as law and order situation of the
country, and citizens’ perception about public safety.
Law and order situation
Police are mainly responsible to maintain law and order situation in the
country. Political parties and police department are commonly blamed
for any unstable circumstances. Therefore, the view of citizens on overall
law and order situation has a clear impact on their trust in police.
Satisfaction with Public Safety: The main task of police department is to
ensure public safety in their own constituencies. The citizens who were
victimized and had any bad experience with police or have concerned
over security issue may believe that the police are not doing their job,
which has an impact on the level of trust.
Political inluence
Political inluence on police can impede the true functioning of police
in favor of general citizens and thereby service delivery of police station
will not be smooth and hassle free. If the police are highly controlled by
political leaders in the locality, the level of citizens’ trust may be low in
police.
Ethical views/practices of citizens
General assumption tells that the citizens who are corrupt will not bother
by the malpractices of police and thereby trust level will be high on the
police. People may think that police is working well if we provide some
extra money or can inluence them through any other means (persuasion/
tadbir), so there is no wrong with them. Acceptance level of corrupt
behavior may be well correlated with the trust level. However, this may
not be true always. In a study, Cao and Hou’s (2001), using World Value
Survey data (WVS), they found that ‘Chinese who were less likely to
accept criminal behavior tended to have higher levels of conidence in
police’. In this regard, the study attempted to explore what is the case
for citizens of Bangladesh in terms of relationships between their ethical
views and level of trust in police.
Democracy and Governance 55
In some political cultures, corruption may stand out as an acceptable
practice that only has a very limited impact on the legitimacy of public
institutions (Anderson and Tverdova, 2003 in Jamil and Askvik, 2013, p.
155). We tried to explore the extent to which acceptance level of corrupt
behavior is correlated with the trust level in Bangladesh.
Governance of the police
Governance, as a concept, has a wider coverage, Generically, police
governance refers to the task of running a police organization, or any
other appropriate entity for that matter. In fact, governance means all
the processes that coordinate and control an organization’s resources
and actions. In the present study, however, it includes four basic pillars
of governance: accountability, transparency, rule of law and peoples’
participation in relation to the level of citizens’ trust. It is assumed
here that if the performance of police is better in terms of these four
governance indicators, the citizens’ trust in police would be higher.
Gender of police
Gender plays a crucial role in looking and assessing the police activities
that inluence the formulation of trust within the citizen, especially in a
country like Bangladesh where gender role are well deined. Bangladesh
got a noticeably a high score (score: 55) on the Masculinity dimension
(Website: The Hofstede Center, https://geert-hofstede.com/bangladesh.
html). Many researchers have found that women are less corrupt
compared to men (Bailey and Paras 2006; Treisman 2007; Melnykovska
and Michailova 2009 cited in Wangnerud 2012). In this context, we
were interested to see whether the level of citizens’ trust varies based on
the gender of police.
Age
The anthropological record points that society’s use age universally as a
basis for distinguishing among their members (Keith, 1982 as cited by
Montepare & Zebrowitz, 1998: 93). The present study will explore to
what extent people from different generation do trust in police. Young
people have more access to media (television, radio and newspaper) and
other forms of information channel (i.e. internet), so it is very likely that
they have more exposure to diverse information and voice that might
inluence their trust level in the police department. There is, however, an
argument that in Asian countries, older generations may be less trustful
56 Exploring the Factors that Affect Citizens’ Trust in Bangladesh Police
of public institutions due to their exposure to authoritarian or military
regimes at younger ages (Chang and Chu, 2006 in Wu et al., 2012, p.193).
Trust in political institutions
To capture the broad spectrum of political system, the study incorporates
a number of political institutions which can be divided into two broad
categories:
Macro level instituions Micro level institutions
- Trust in Central Government - Trust in Union Parishad
- Trust in Political Parties - Trust in Upazilla Parishad
- Trust in Politicians - Trust in City Corporation/Pourashava
Here, it was tried to see whether there is any relationship between
trust in political institutions and trust in police. Data on citizen trust
in political system were collected from PPG Governance Survey
2014-15.
Findings of the study
The indings of the present study strongly support the previous indings
of PPG program’s trust survey conducted in 2015. That study showed
43% of citizens had trust in police while the present study shows almost
same level of trust (45%) citizens have in police in 2016.
Table 1: Level of trust in Bangladesh police
Category % of Respondents
Don’t have trust 55%
Have trust 45%
N=60
Additionally, it appears that conidence in the police has improved
recently, the survey conducted by Saferworld and Mitra and Associates
Democracy and Governance 57
in 2009 suggested that only 45 percent of people have some conidence
in the police, compared with 62.7% in 2010. There is a paradox that
due to the increasing level of trust, reporting of crimes to police has
increased which ultimately shows more number of oficial crime records
in each police station. Such conditions can mislead us to an inaccurate
perception that performance of police in deteriorating and therefore
crime rate is going up and up (UNDP 2011).
Many people, based on general expectations and notions, might ind
that the inding of this paper regarding the trust in police (45%) either
exaggerated the citizen’s trust level, or citizens gave compliance response
during the interview. We had taken initiatives to minimize the compliance
answer and tried to convince them about their anonymity so that they did
not give any guarded answer. Nevertheless, we also obtain a positive
shift of citizens’ trust towards police in different contemporary studies.
Like the current study, all the recent studies (like SDSA, UNDP, PPG
Trust survey, BRAC University, the Daily Star-Nielsen, Criminology and
Criminal Justice Program – University of Dhaka) conducted on citizens’
trust in Bangladesh police show more or less a similar positive trend.
Moreover, it should be acknowledged that the prime objective of the
present study is not to track down the level of citizens’ trust in police,
rather to explain the factors inluencing the level of trust in Bangladesh
police. The major focus of the study was to identify the possible reasons
those are responsible for the recent rise of citizens’ trust. The detail
indings are discussed below:
Reporting crime to police
In response to a question, what will they do in a criminal incidence
like somebody snatched away his money bag, mobile etc.? Most of the
respondents replied they will go to the police station. Few speciically
mentioned that they will open a general diary (GD) while the rest said
they will just report the crime to the police. Few respondents, interestingly
all were female respondents, told that they would shout for public help
irst, then they will seek for police support, if required.
Only a few respondents said that they might not go to the police since
they considered that it would be waste of money and time to seek help
from police. They also stated that if the matter was simple which could
be dealt by themselves, they would not go to the police station. For
instance, one shopkeeper expressed his views in the following way:
58 Exploring the Factors that Affect Citizens’ Trust in Bangladesh Police
“Regarding extortion (Chadabazi) at the local level, it is
easier to negotiate with extortionists (Chandabaaz) than
going to the police. If I go to the police I will also have to pay
money (Chaada) to the police oficer. It will kill my time as
well. In this circumstance, I will try to handle it (chadabazi/
extortion) by myself. But if itis a big matter like extortionists
are asking a big amount, then we do not have any option
except going to police station”.
Few other respondents also argued similarly it would be a waste of
money since police would not provide service unless they were made
satisied with some inducements. Nevertheless, ultimately, more than
80% afirmed that they would seek police help if they faced any problems
like snatching, theft or other form of crime. The indings indicate that the
respondents have good accessibility to police at least in terms of lodging
complaint whenever they become victim of any criminal incidence.
However, in questionnaire survey, respondents were asked whether they
or their family member have ever visited a police station or actively
received any service from police for themselves or for their relatives or
for someone else.
Table 2: Receiving service from Bangladesh police
Category Service received Service not received
Personally 23% 77%
Family member or
43% 57%
acquaintance
N=60
The above table shows that most of the respondents (77%) personally
never visited a police station for any kind of service while around 43% of
their family members or acquaintance received service from police. The
inding indicates that people usually do not like to visit police station.
They ask for service from the police only when they are bound to do
so and there is no alternative way to get rid of the problems. However,
50% of the respondents who visited personally and46% of whom family
members received services from police, were found dissatisied with the
services rendered by police, and they had less trust in police.
Democracy and Governance 59
The widely held public perception is that people are a bit reluctant to
lodge complaint with the police for fear of complications, encumbrances
and harassment in the criminal justice system in cases of snatching
cell phones, money and purse. Therefore, such petty nature of criminal
offences has remained awfully underreported among all the criminal
offences occurred in the major cities. People can lodge complaint with
the court also. A sizable number of cases are lodged with and resolved
by the court. People go to the police since police are entrusted legally
with the responsibility of receiving complaints, investigating and inally
submitting the police report to the court.
Reasons for seeking the assistance of police: is it trust or something
else?
The immediate next question was: “what made you feel that you could
trust in police and you went to report the criminal act?” Most of the
respondents replied that they had no other choice except complaining to
the police, since there is nobody but the police who is entitled to deal this
sort of activity. Few said that they might get back their stuff or not, but at
least it would create a possibility. Many respondents opined that it is the
responsibility of police to maintain law and order situation, so we inform
them irst if we face any irregularities, criminal activities etc.
Few respondents shared their own experiences they had with police.
Some of the cases are mentioned here:
Missing housemaid
In 2014, suddenly my housemaid went missing. After looking
for her in many places, my son went to the police station to
open a General Diary (GD). Instead of taking the GD the duty
oficer asked my son to bring me (respondent) to meet him.
When I went to the police station, they said, “Apa” (sister),
since a child went missing so it will be a very complicated
case against you”. After hearing that I got scared. Then
he added, “Apa (sister) if you spend some money then we
can handle everything”. After receiving 10,000 taka police
illed the GD and made a settlement with the family of my
housemaid. I had to give a handsome amount of money to
the housemaid’s mother.
Last year, I got to know that the housemaid was working at
a police sub inspector’s home. It was ridiculous. If I would
not pay the money, I might need to suffer a lot. Probably,
60 Exploring the Factors that Affect Citizens’ Trust in Bangladesh Police
they would ile a case against me to get more money. Even
for illing a GD for an ordinary issue we have to pay the
police. We cannot seek remedies and they just seek their own
business/interest (‘dhanda’). However, there are some good
police as well who help people with sincerity and dedication.
No action until formal report to the police station
I was returning to home from Bonpara (a place in Natore
District) to Pabna with an auto rickshaw (CNG) in the early
morning after attending a wedding ceremony of my cousin.
We were four passengers in that CNG. They suddenly stopped
the CNG in the middle of the path. They put a handgun at my
head and snatched everything including my phone and hand
watch. They left me there and start moving towards Pabna.
Actually, they were muggers in disguise of passenger, but
I could not realize at the beginning. Even, the CNG driver
was a member of that thug group. A police van arrived just
a few moments later and I got some hopes. I stopped them
and quickly informed them about the incident. The CNG was
still within the eyesight and we could see it. But the police
told me that I had to report to the police station irst and then
they would take necessary action. How funny it was! They
simply avoided the issue. It was a great bitter experience
in my life regarding the police. I was totally disappointed!
Dificult to reach oficer in charge (OC)
As a government oficer, I dealt with many public documents
and verify them. Once I saw an inconsistency in the document
of a person. In such case, we used to seek assistance from
police for veriication purpose. So, I went to nearby police
station and I told the duty oficer about the matter in details.
But he was ignoring my request showing lame excuse of
excessive workloads. At the end, I wanted to meet the Oficer
in Charge (OC), but they were not allowing me to enter the
chamber of OC. I was totally shocked by their misbehavior.
Being disappointed, I informed my superior in ofice about
the matter. Then my boss took the step to contact with the
OC. After one and half an hour they called me and took
me to the OC. The OC heard the fraud document issue and
assured me to take proper steps for necessary investigation.
However, it took half a day to manage such a simple task
even after being a government oficial.
Democracy and Governance 61
The above incidences reveal that in most of the cases, experiences with
police are not quite satisfactory. Getting services from police has become
somehow complicated and therefore general people are afraid of hassles
and waste of money and time in dealing with police. But, at least in
terms of lodging complaints, access to police is quite good for citizens
whenever they become victim of any criminal incidence. Citizens tend
to report any crime to police with a view to maintain the obligatory
formalities, sometimes with light hopes of getting solution and most
of the cases they do it because of having no alternatives. However,
reporting a crime or registering a complaint to police does not indicate
that the level of trust in police is high. It is also observed in this study
that reporting to police or getting services from police is not correlated
with trust in police.
Performance of police
It is commonly assumed that performance and trust are correlated. If
performance of police is satisfactory in maintaining law and order,
ensuring public safety and delivering services, citizens’ trust should be
higher in them. In this study, the respondents were asked to measure the
performance of police after providing a brief overview of the police and
their limitations in terms of number of police, transports, technology,
ammunition etc. Mixed responses were found where some respondents
were positive about the overall performance of police and they
opined that police are doing better day by day. On the contrary, a few
respondents opined that the performance of police is getting worse over
time due to excessive political misuse of police, corruption and bribe,
political recruitment, lack of skills and physical strength and absence
of technological knowledge, etc. In this regard, a police oficer was
blaming in the following way:
“Recruitment, promotion and transfer have become fully
political where good oficer are frequently transferred to
discomfort zones. Recruitment and transfer are now a very
big business for higher level oficials where the rates are
Tk. 10 lac for recruitment and Tk. 1 lac for transfer and the
money is distributed from ASP to IG. I am earning extra
money since I needed to pay Tk. 5 lac for recruitment, Tk. 1
lac to make transfer to this district and Tk. 50 thousand to
ensure my posting at sadarthana”.
62 Exploring the Factors that Affect Citizens’ Trust in Bangladesh Police
According to one police oficer, non-cooperation from citizens is one of
the major problems in effective functioning for police department, since
people are not willing to be witness or do not want to say anything for any
case. For example, people thought that it is their only duty to hand over a
thief to police and therefore police cannot punish a criminal since they do
not ind proper witness statement or evidence. One noticeable feature is
that the attitude towards the police is getting somewhat positive, though
the opposite scenario is still quite visible. In the questionnaire survey,
indings were quite similar about the performance of police.
Table 3: Overall performance and trust in police
Statements about police Agree (%) Correlation with trust
The performance of police is
43% 0.412**
satisfying the citizen expectation
Performance of police is
77% 0.531**
improving overtime
The overall law and order
17% 0.347**
situation of the country is good
The current situation of
public safety in the country is 15% Not sig
satisfactory
**Correlation is signiicant at the
N=60
0.01 level (2-tailed).
The above table shows that the overall performance of Bangladesh police
is not quite satisfactory, only 43% were found positive about police
performance, although majority of respondents (77%) opined that police
is doing better than before. Police are mostly responsible to maintain
law and order and ensure security for all. But, very few respondents are
found satisied about the law and order situation (17%) and public safety
(15%) in the country. This indicates the descendent performance of
Bangladesh police. The correlation value shows that there is a signiicant
positive relationship between performance and trust where most of the
performance indicators are found signiicant at 0.01 level.
The above table may trigger confusion that shows 77% citizens opined
that performance of police is getting better than before, while 57%
Democracy and Governance 63
citizens are not satisied with the overall performance and more than
80% citizens are negative about law & order situation. Actually, it does
not mean that the current performance of police is satisfactory, rather
it indicates police performance is getting better than the past. It is even
possible that citizens believe that the performance of police is getting
better regardless of present corruption level or any other negative hype
against police. Corruption has always been a part of our organizational
culture in public sector. When citizens do compare the performance
of police, they usually compare the police with the past. The previous
performance is the benchmark for citizens’ evaluation. The underlying
fact is that, though citizens are not satisied with the police performance,
they think performance of police is improving over times.
However, the respondents made a number of comments for and against
the police force of Bangladesh during the survey and in-depth interviews.
The respondents who were positive about police argued that Bangladesh
police are doing well despite the dificult situation, high pressure, limited
and old weapons, insuficient vehicles, and many other challenges.
Currently, law and order condition is good except some terrorist
activities by some extremist groups. But, police are dealing terrorist
issues very well and their regular service delivery has improved as well.
Actually, as respondents opined, achievements of the police department
are not well highlighted, rather critical and mostly negative aspects of
them are widely discussed and spread out everywhere. Modern weapons,
high technology, adequate logistics support, and arrangement for proper
training both at home and abroad can enhance the performance of police
to a large extent.
On the other hand, many respondents were critical and hold negative
opinions about the police. They argued that corruption is the one of the
fundamental barriers for police to perform better. Some other recent
phenomena about Bangladesh police are excessive politicization,
custodial violence and death, encounter or cross ire, forced
disappearance, excessive policing, discrimination in the enforcement of
law, ill-treatment, manipulation, illegal arrest, absence of responsive and
accountable policing, etc. The major problems respondents highlighted
about the police were poor investigation, lack of sincerity, and modern
technology, large number of cases, but no adequate actions, ineficiency
to protect bloggers and journalists, and so on. One respondent explained
that “police are more corrupt than before, they are taking money
everywhere, and even they, sometimes, create artiicial problems in
64 Exploring the Factors that Affect Citizens’ Trust in Bangladesh Police
order to extort money from citizens. Therefore, we do not have respect
for police now, but once we had it for them”. Another respondent said
that “nowadays, police go to the crime scene promptly, but later on they
do not show that much care in following up that case”.
According to the inding in questionnaire survey some of the issues
regarding performance of police are given in the following table:
Table 4: Challenges for Bangladesh police to perform better
Statement Agree (%)
The logistics supports like manpower, arms, vehicle etc. of
83%
police are insuficient
Given the current capacity of police department (like
logistics, manpower, training, work freedom), they do their 58%
best in discharging their responsibilities
Nature of police depends on the nature of government 55%
Police try to be aggressive, if needed, to please government 90%
Police are bound to do what government says 92%
Performance of police is improving overtime 77%
N=60
It is evident from the above table that there are a number of barriers
for Bangladesh police to perform better and ensure hassle free service
delivery for citizens. The extensive control of ruling government over
police limits their capacity to act neutrally. Police cannot go beyond the
directions of government and even they are, in most cases, bound to
implement government wishes (92% respondents also opined so). On
the other hand, police used to be latteringly loyal to government for
the sake of their career and sometimes to get undue privileges. In this
study, 90% respondents perceived that police can do anything to satisfy
government and 55% though that nature of police mainly depends on the
nature of government. However, there are some limitations for police
in terms logistics, manpower, training, work freedom. 83% respondents
thought that the logistics supports for police are insuficient to perform
better, and therefore, 58% respondents argued that police are doing their
Democracy and Governance 65
best with these deiciencies while 77% opined that their performance is
gradually improving.
Political inluence over police
Political inluence over the law enforcement apparatus in the third world
countries like Bangladesh is endemic. This is also a classical concern
among the academicians how much they penetrate into the modus
operandi of the police since the government in power has the people’s
mandate. When the government supersedes the law of the land which
they are committed to protect much to the determinant of the majority
people’s interest, it is, indeed, the interference by using the political
ofice so as to serve the parochial interest. Inluencing police in their
activities has become an integral part of political culture in Bangladesh
and therefore police cannot act independently. Police oficers, in
interviews, identiied some constrains for performing better even after
having willingness to do so. The main obstacle is lack of freedom to
work due to excessive political control over them. One police oficer
said “political leaders, many times, behave with us in such a way that
we do not have any personality”. In this study, none of the respondents
supported the political interference in the functions of police, as they
believed that police would work more effectively without any political
interference. As one of the respondent argued that “The less the political
pressure, the better police will work. Moreover, political leaders in our
country pressurize police for no noble reason, but to fulill their own
interest”. All respondents were fully against this practice since it might
open an avenue for the misuse of power. They also considered that
the nexus between the police and politician would lead to corruption,
ineficiency and over policing against the weak.
Sometimes, the political leaders commit crime with the assistance of
the police. Even the students’ wings of many political parties are also
engaged in illegal works under the protection of police. Lower level
political leaders indulge in crimes with the shelter of top level politician,
and due to have strong connection between the higher authority of police
and top level politician, they are not punished. It is very often argued
that political interference is necessary to maintain check and balance
on the activities of police to avert misuse of power by them. But the
respondents in this study mentioned that although political leaders can
play a signiicant role in restraining police to exercise absolute power,
yet this is not an ideal solution for the country like Bangladesh where
excessive control is a common phenomenon politicians can use to dictate
66 Exploring the Factors that Affect Citizens’ Trust in Bangladesh Police
police in favor of themselves in order to earn undue beneits. Rather, the
respondents asserted that departmental accountability of police should
be strengthened where the higher authority of police can supervise and
monitor the subordinates and thereby control the abuse of power by
police. In the survey indings, almost all the respondents were found
against the political inluence on police.
Table 5: Political inluence and trust in police
Statements about police Agree (%) Correlation with Trust
Police are fully politicized 90% -0.391**
Police are pressurized by political
97% -0.374**
leaders or inluential persons
Police should be free from
100%
political inluence
Police entertain the illegal
demand from the political leader
90% -0.224 (0.08)
or political party or inluential
persons
**Correlation is signiicant at the
N=60
0.01 level (2-tailed).
All the igures in the above table are quite high that indicates the extreme
level of political inluence over police department in Bangladesh. A total
of 90% respondents thought that police are absolutely under political
control, whereas 97% of them opined that political leaders and inluential
persons create pressure on police. The most alarming inding is that 90%
respondents perceived that police cooperate political party, leaders and
other inluential persons in fulilling their illegal desires. However, all
the respondents (100%) opined to have full freedom of police and no
political or other inluence should have on police. There is a signiicant
negative correlation between political inluence and trust which indicates
that the more politicization of police, the less citizens’ trust on them.
It reveals from the above analysis that respondents are strongly against
the political interference in the activities of police. Such interventions
are not even accepted as an oversight mechanism, rather departmental
accountability of policeis preferable instead political accountability.
Democracy and Governance 67
It tarnishes the eficiency of the police and opens up space for misuse
of power both by politicians as well as police for their mutual interest.
Police department can effectively oversight the activities of police
oficers and many respondents opined that there is no need for any
political interference.
Trust in political institutions and trust in police
Political institutions indicate the strengths and weaknesses of the
political system and culture of a country. Effective and functional
political institutions are the basic requirements for a truly democratic
society. The nature of political institutions determines the nature of
public organizations and administration. Police as a public institution
and state agency are highly dependent on government as well as ruling
party. Therefore, it is assumed that there may be a strong relationship
between the citizens’ trust in political institutions and trust in police.
Based on the study indings, following table is clearly showing a strong
co-relation between trust in political institutions and trust in police.
Table 6: Trust in political institutions and trust in police
Categories Correlation with trust in police
Trust in parliament 0.506**
Trust in central government 0.526**
Trust in Upazila 0.384**
Trust in Union 0.292*
Trust in City Corporation 0.407**
Trust in government ofice 0.533**
Trust in political parties 0.580**
Trust in election commission 0.530**
Trust in Bangladesh Awami League 0.627**
Trust in BNP -0.084
Trust in Jatiya Party -0.268*
**Correlation is signiicant at the 0.01
level (2-tailed).
* Correlation is signiicant at the 0.05
level (2-tailed).
68 Exploring the Factors that Affect Citizens’ Trust in Bangladesh Police
Citizens with higher trust in political institutions tend to have higher
trust in police and the indings indicate that trust in different political
institutions massively inluences the trust level in police. Trust in
Bangladesh Awami League, the ruling political party, shows a very
strong correlation (.63), while BNP, a major political party, is not found
signiicantly correlated. It indicates that citizens’ trust in ruling party
has a profound impact on citizen’s trust in police. Interestingly, negative
correlation is found with the trust in Jatiya Party, one of the alliance
parties of government that indicates the more trust with JP the less trust
in police. The nature of the police depends on the nature of government
and in this study more than 55% respondents agree with this statement.
Therefore, the image of ruling party along with its coalition is crucial
in forming citizen trust in police. Trust in local institutions (upazila &
union) shows less correlation with trust in police compared to national
level institutions (parliament & central government). The possible reason
could be people perceive that local intuitions have less inluence over
the police, whereas national level institutions are much more inluential.
At the same time, trust in government ofice, election commission and
overall political parties are found strongly correlated with trust in police.
Citizens’ acceptance of corrupt practice and trust in police
Corruption has become the most critical problem for Bangladesh which
stands irst in world corruption index for several times. Bangladesh
police is found one of the most corrupt institutions in the country.
Corruption cannot be committed alone; rather it needs involvement of
two or more actors or parties. Citizens are many times act as a party of
corrupt practices. In an interview, one police oficer claimed:
“We are not doing illegal works or corruption; people
are forcing us to do so. They, often, offer us money after
committing any crime in order to get rid of the charges, for
example, after injuring any person one may offer us twenty
thousand or in case of having no driving license we are
often offered one hundred taka. In such cases, if we do not
cooperate them, they will create pressures either by higher
level police oficer or by political leaders, and then we are
bound to leave them”.
Public institutions in Bangladesh are more or less involved in corruptions
for delivering services to people. On the other hand, people become used
to the corrupt practices and thus a general acceptance may grow among
Democracy and Governance 69
them. In present study, it was hypothesized that the acceptance of corrupt
practices may have some sort of connection with the level of citizens’
trust in police.
Most respondents said that giving extra money to police to get the work
done has become part of our national culture. They expressed clearly
that they did not like it, rather they were usually forced to pay bribes,
otherwise their work could not be done in time. One respondent stated
“we did not want to give such extra money unless we were forced to do
so”. A few respondents talked about the salary of police:
“They thought that the police are underpaid compared to
their workload. Once upon a time, the salary of police was
only Tk. 500 with which it was not possible to run their
family. Recently, their salary has been increased slightly,
but the amount is still not commensurate with the volume
of work they do. The salary for a police constable should be
30000 taka. Then they will not take any bribe from general
people”.
Interestingly, the respondents, who mentioned the low salary issue, still
believe that providing extra money is a wicked culture, which is not an
acceptable at all. Another respondent said, “Nowadays we want to get
our work done faster and hence we are providing speed money to make
it quicker”. This psychology is gradually becoming a part of our culture.
However, providing extra money to speed up work was not supported
at all by the most of the respondents. Whatever the logic (like poor
salary, high work pressure, etc.) might have behind taking bribes, the
respondents despised this culture. It was quite apparent in the interview
that the respondents are not ready to accept any corrupt practices of
police regardless of their own ethical viewpoints.
However, in the questionnaire survey, many respondents have shown
higher tolerance towards corrupt practices and even willing to opt
themselves any unfair means to get the works done quickly.
Table 7: Tolerance of citizens towards corrupt practice
Category % of Respondents
Willingly pay extra money 42%
Bound to pay extra money 95%
N=60
70 Exploring the Factors that Affect Citizens’ Trust in Bangladesh Police
The above table clearly shows that a signiicant number of respondents
(42%) were agreed to the statement that citizens pay extra money to
serve their own purpose, while almost all respondents (95%) argued
that citizens were usually forced to pay extra money. These indings
indicate that there is a moderate level of acceptance of corrupt practices
among the respondents. The respondents were also asked to express their
opinion on a few statements related to the ethical view points and to
assess the level of acceptance of corrupt practices.
I would not mind giving some
extra money to get my work done
There is nothing wrong in it to take any
unfair ways to get works done if it can’t
be achieved following normal procedures
Corrupvon is a normal incidence in
modern world, so is in Bangladesh
Ethical/moral standard of people
is deterioravng day by day
People are avoiding taxes and
VAT if there is a chance
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Graph 2 : Citizens’ acceptance of corrupt practices
The chart indicates that a large number of respondents agree with the
statement i.e. the acceptance of corrupt practices is quite high among
the citizens; and at the same time corrupt practices shows an upward
trends whereas the moral standard of people showing a downward trend.
However, there were another set of statements regarding the assessment
of ethical views of respondents where citizens response are quite
astounding at least considering their ethical standpoints.
Table 08: Ethical views of citizens
% of respondents consider
Statements
acceptable
Someone is receiving extra money for 2
doing his job
Avoiding cost on public service (transport, 0
utility, etc.)
Avoiding taxes and VAT if there is a 2
chance
Using public fund/properties for personal 5
interest
Democracy and Governance 71
The above table displays the percentages of respondents who thought
that the stated behaviors are acceptable. It is clear from the table that the
above mentioned corrupt behavior or practices are not acceptable at all to
most of the respondents (95% and above). This inding is contradictory
with the responses found the in the earlier bar chart where quite a big
number of respondents agreed with most of the corrupt practices. The
reason may be that the respondents agreed with many of the corrupt
practices and even they are personally doing so, but they also considered
those practices as unacceptable or illegal. Another important aspect is
that respondents seemed to be very much vocal when the questions of
corrupt practices about others or in general, but on the contrary, they
were giving guarded answers while the questions implicated themselves.
Therefore, it would be very dificult to make speciic comments or come
to any signiicant judgment about the correlation between citizens’
acceptance of corrupt practices and trust in police.
Our hypothesis was that the more acceptance of corrupt practices the
higher level of trust in police. But the data show no signiicant correlation
rather anti-hypothetical relationships are found with the following two
issues:
Table 09: Acceptance of corrupt practices and trust in police
Categories Correlation with trust in police
Bound to pay extra money -0.381**
Ethical/moral standard of people are
-0.308**
deteriorating day by day
**Correlation is signiicant at the 0.01
level (2-tailed).
* Correlation is signiicant at the 0.05
level (2-tailed).
The above table shows that the respondents who thought that people
are bound to pay bribes to police and at the same time who argued
that moral standard is diminishing, have less trust in police. But it was
hypothesized that in such circumstances, citizens should have more trust
in police since the unethical citizens would not take corrupt practices of
police negatively, rather they would think that there is nothing wrong
in taking bribe by police until they are serving people with that extra
money. Therefore, the citizens with low standard of morality should have
72 Exploring the Factors that Affect Citizens’ Trust in Bangladesh Police
a higher level of trust in police. But current inding shows a different
scenario.
Are female police oficers more trustworthy?
Almost each respondent in the in-depth interviews expressed their higher
level of trust in female police compared to the male counterpart, although
many of them consider that females are less capable of discharging duties
and responsibilities as police oficers. They also argued that female
police are less corrupt and more sincere in performing their activities.
Similar indings were also observed in the questionnaire survey.
Female police are less
corrupt than male
They are more sincere in
discharging their duves
They are more
trustworthy than male
They are necessary
for the country
They are more capable in
carrying out their duves
They are more friendly
than male
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Graph 3 : Status of female police oficers
The above bar chart shows that most of the respondents (around 90%)
believed women police were less corrupted and more sincere than
the male counterpart in discharging their duties. Therefore, female
police were more trustworthy than male according to the 60% of the
respondents. Regarding friendly attitude and capability, respondents were
a bit skeptical about female police where around 35% of the respondents
only agreed, while the rest (65%) disagreed with the statements. The
reason might lie in the national culture of Bangladesh, where female are
supposed to maintain a cordial distance from male. This may generate a
feeling of alienation among people that caused their negative impression
about the friendliness of female police.
Police need to work in different challenging situation, sometimes they
need to stretch their muscles to control any critical circumstances. As one
of the respondents said “I do not know whether male or female police is
Democracy and Governance 73
more trustworthy, but in service delivery, male is more skilled compared
to female, male are more active and physically it to carry out different
roles required for policing”. A police oficer, in an interview, argued
in similar way that “There is no ixed timing for the duties of a police
oficer. Sometimes, we need to rush to a crime scene even at late night.
Can you think that a female police oficer can be sent in such condition at
late night? But they are suitable for ofice job at police station”.
Nevertheless, respondents generally show more trust towards female.
Respondents argued that female police work sincerely and usually do
not take any bribe since they are comparatively more honest and their
economic demand, as well, is less than a male police whereas a male
police have so many crises or needs which may invoke him to earn extra
money. Besides, female are usually not highly involved in unethical
activities and they are by nature very cooperative and soft-hearted.
However, a few respondents expressed that gender of police is not a major
issue here. The level of trust basically depends on the service delivery of
police, their honesty, corrupt practices and prompt responses to the needs
of citizens. But it is apparent that female police are more trustworthy in
the sense that they are less corrupt while on the other hand male police are
more trustworthy since they are more capable in discharging the critical
duties of policing. It would be very dificult to make a conclusion here
that gender difference of police oficers is a signiicant issue in forming
citizens’ trust. As in a survey indings Wagner, et.al (2016) argued that
women are not inherently more ethical or qualiied police oficers but
both of them have similar ethical standards. Therefore, recruiting more
female police oficers is not a very good solution to improve the service
delivery of police.
Governance and citizens’ trust in police
Accountability, transparency, rule of law and peoples’ participation
are the four pillars of governance included in this study to assess their
relationships with the level of citizens’ trust. The respondents were asked
to grade Bangladesh police in terms of these four governance indicators.
It was assumed that there should have a positive correlation between
governance and trust in police, i.e. the respondents who grade the police
higher in terms of governance dimensions tend to have higher trust in
them and vice versa. The indings of this study support this hypothesis.
74 Exploring the Factors that Affect Citizens’ Trust in Bangladesh Police
Table 10: Police governance and trust
Categories Correlation with trust in police
Level of accountability in police 0.510**
Level of transparency in police 0.592**
Level of rule of law in police 0.581**
Level of people's access to police 0.451**
**Correlation is signiicant at the 0.01
level (2-tailed).
The above table evidently indicates that all four pillars of governance
are correlated with the level of trust and found statistically signiicant
at the level 0.01 level. It can be said that citizens have more trust with
the accountable and transparent police who follow the rule of law and
where people have easy access. All four governance indicators are found
strongly correlated with the level of trust in police but transparency and
rule of law are comparatively stronger than the other two: accountability
in and access to police. It implies that ensuring good governance in
police is an essential prerequisite for building citizens’ trust.
Factors affecting citizen trust in police
Citizens by nature love to criticize public institutions and similarly they
have a negative hype regarding Bangladesh police. The respondents,
both citizens and police oficials, were insisted to mention, at least, few
positive as well as negative aspects of police that helped develop trust
or create distrust in police. However, different impressions and mixed
opinions were observed in several studies conducted on citizens’ trust
in public institutions including police where a large number of citizens
were found positive about police. The indings were quite unanticipated,
unexpected, and anti-hypothetical since the common notion was mostly
against the police. One of major objectives of this study is to identify
the factors affect the level of citizens’ trust in Bangladesh police, and
therefore, it was attempted to identify the positive factors for which
citizens consider Bangladesh police as a trustworthy institution.
Democracy and Governance 75
Positive factors that enhance citizens’ trust
Citizens by nature love to criticize public institutions and similarly they
have a negative hype regarding Bangladesh police. However, different
impressions and mixed opinions were observed in several studies
conducted on citizens’ trust in public institutions including police where
a large number of citizens were found positive about police. The indings
were quite unanticipated, unexpected, and anti-hypothetical since the
common notion was mostly against the police. Therefore, in this study it
was attempted to identify the positive factors for which citizens consider
Bangladesh police as a trustworthy institution although no remarkable
and visible improvement occurred in their performance.
In identifying the positive factors, citizens mostly pointed that whenever
they become victims they rush to police for assistance since police are
mainly responsible to look into such issues of their daily life. To maintain
the law and order situation, to reduce or prevent any crimes, and to ensure
security for all police work round the clock and nowadays they response
promptly, come to the crime scene within soonest possible time and go
for immediate actions. All police oficers are not corrupt; there are many
honest oficers who can be trustworthy. Some of the positive cases were
also heard from the respondents who had nice experiences with police.
Amazing behavior of police!
About three years ago, I had to go to the police station over
an agriculture land related dispute with one of my relatives.
I fell in a big trouble and I had no other options but seeking
help from police. I visited our police station and they all
helped me about that matter. Particularly, I would like to
mention a Habilder, who helped me a lot. I was amazed with
his nice behavior. They were so friendly and they advised
me the way to mitigate the matter by ourselves (with my
relative).
Helpful attitude of police
I visited a police station for obtaining a ‘police veriication’,
which was required as a part of the selection process of a job
I had applied. Two police oficials came to my house, and
they told me to submit necessary information and documents
to the police department. Immediately, I went to the police
station and provided them all required information. They
helped me wholeheartedly and I was fully pleased. I was
really surprised with their behavior. On that day, my negative
perception about police proved false.
76 Exploring the Factors that Affect Citizens’ Trust in Bangladesh Police
Felt safe when reached police station
It was late night when my mother and I were returning home
at Kalabagan, Dhaka after attending a wedding ceremony.
It was around11.30 pm and the streets were completely calm
and quiet. We were scared and hesitated if we could manage
to reach home safely. There was a police station on the way.
When we reached police station, we felt safe. We requested
one policeman that we would feel safe if he could come with
us. Honestly, he agreed with us without asking any question
about our identity, address or how long he got to come with
us. The police walked with us to our home. We were not very
important person (VIP) neither did I show any ID. I just
requested him to come with us and he came with us till we
reached home. I will always remember this.
The same question was asked to the police oficers why citizens’ trust in
police has increased signiicantly (16% to 43%) over the last few years.
During the in-depth discussion, they argued for some positive aspects
of Bangladesh police as explanations for increasing citizens’ trust. They
said Police cadre has become one of the top choices in the Bangladesh
Civil Service where a number of bright students are joining due to the
substantial increment in salary. Mentality of these newly recruited police
oficials is much positive, they are educated and they got more decent
and friendly attitude towards that win the heart of the people.
Law and order situation has improved over the last few years. Not long
ago, some identiied godfathers used to take extortion money and many
thugs used to carry arms openly. But now they dare to that because of
robust policing. Performance of police is recently improving very fast.
Police are now expanding their presence in online and using modern
technology to track down the criminals. Media is more active and they
follow almost every incidence and police station which forces Bangladesh
Police to be more transparent as well as more careful in dealing with
people to avoid any negative propaganda. At the same time, people are
more aware of their rights and services they supposed get for police and
they have also some ideas about different legal procedures. Therefore,
police cannot easily dodge people and abuse the power like before.
Police oficials also mentioned some recent initiatives of government
to ensure better performance. Government has increased the number
of police oficers in the upper level in order to make supervision more
Democracy and Governance 77
rigorous. Higher authority of police regularly monitor whether each GD
(General Diary) is investigated properly. Moreover, police are now in
more decentralized structure. Previously, DMP (Dhaka Metropolitan
Police) composed of 8-10 police stations, now it is reduced to 2/3 police
stations which enable them to perform better. Introduction of community
police is another good initiative that includes citizens in providing their
own security. Gulshan (an aristocratic place in Dhaka city) can be a good
example of community policing,
Both citizen and police oficial mentioned about friendly behavior of
police. The way police treat citizens has been changing over time and
shape positive image about police. Some respondents exempliied it
from their own experiences. So it is evident from the above discussion
that there are some positive changes happening in Bangladesh police that
improve their performance and therefore citizens’ trust tend to be higher.
Negative factors that decrease citizens’ trust
There is no question of having trust in Bangladesh police, people do not
respect them sincerely rather they are afraid of and keep away from police
for not to be harassed. General people in Bangladesh mostly perceive such
negative views about police. During interviews, both police oficials and
citizens were asked to identify some important reasons for which they
do not have trust in Bangladesh police. The most common grievances
against police were harassment and receiving bribes. Getting service
from police is a big hassle and sufferings (‘hoyrani’) while corruption
has become a very common culture where police serve only the people
who can pay extra money or have strong political connections. Even,
police do not show any respect to a common person who has no political
tie-up. There is excessive political control on police that embeds them to
work freely as well as neutrally. At the same time police often misuse
their power, and sometime, in collaboration with political goons, they
become so arrogant to the general people that it seems they do not care
anybody.
Similarly, respondents in questionnaire survey identiied a number of
factors which have inluenced the level of citizens’ trust in police. The
respondents were asked to identify three possible reasons which create
distrust or lack of trust among citizens regarding the police.
78 Exploring the Factors that Affect Citizens’ Trust in Bangladesh Police
Table 11: Reasons for lack of trust in Bangladesh police
% of respondents mentioned
the reason as
Reasons
1st 2nd 3rd
Total
reason reason reason
Bribe 15.0 30.0 18.3 63.3
Do not just and punish criminals 10.0 8.3 16.7 35
Rough behavior and harassment 10.0 5.0 15.0 30
Dishonest, corrupt and take opportunity 11.7 11.7 6.6 30
Inluenced by political & inluential persons 5.0 11.7 10.0 26.7
Misuse of law and power 5.0 6.7 13.3 25
Do not pay attention to poor & non-friendly 15.0 3.3 5.0 23.3
Non-availability when needed 3.3 8.3 6.7 18.3
Do not work properly 10.0 6.7 0 16.7
Failed to provide expected security 5.0 3.3 - 8.3
Other reasons 10 5 8 23
The above table clearly describes some negative aspects and corrupt
practices of Bangladesh police which are mainly responsible for their
‘image crisis’ to the citizens. Receiving inducement or extra money for
performing any regular oficial duty is the top most reason as identiied by
citizens (63%) for distrusting police. The second most important factor
(35%) is the failure to bring justice and not punishing the criminals,
while rude behavior of the police and hassle in getting services from
them and corruption are considered as the third most negative aspect
for the lack of trust in police. Political inluence and misuse of law and
power, lack of access for poor, non-availability of police in times of
need, lack of sincerity in work and failure in providing public security
are among the major explanations citizens argued against Bangladesh
police. However, among the other reasons citizens mentioned about the
shortage of police were frequent missing, murder/extra judicial killings/
cross ire, terrorism, and police working as drug businessmen.
Democracy and Governance 79
We asked the same to police oficers to identify the possible allegations
or complaints for which people perceive negative notions about
Bangladesh police. Researchers also discussed the factors mentioned by
citizens as the reasons for distrusting police. Thus the police oficers
interviewed were provided an opportunity to justify their position
against the assertions or claims from citizens. Regarding corruption
charges, the police oficials argued that there is no doubt about corrupt
practices in Bangladesh police and corruption exists in other government
departments as well. But the visibility of corruption is the highest in
the police department that creates a common negative perception among
general people. For instance, if a trafic police takes bribes, hundreds of
people may observe it in the open street and it may be a reason to have
low trust in police. On the other hand, citizens likely to have higher trust
in other government institutions which are not much visible in corrupt
practices although having possibilities of worse situation there.
Police stations are highly politicized where political leaders create
enormous pressure on police remaining behind the scene. But when
anything goes wrong everyone starts blaming police. At the same time,
the prime function of police is to support the government where they
often need to charge batons during Hartal and other political turmoil.
Hence, eventually, police earn a brutal image for oppositions to please
the government or ruling party. Recruitment system in Bangladesh
police, particularly for Sub-Inspector (SI) and Trafic Sargent are faulty
with corruption and politicization which may spread distrust among the
citizens.
One police oficer argued that “The workload is very high on police that
affects my eficiency as well as behavior. I do not have regular holiday
and sometimes I have to work in long shifts and odd shift, and at times
all these make me so pissed off that I do not even feel interest to receive
my father’s phone call”. Another oficer said that “Many times we need
to be on duty for a whole night and again have to join ofice in the next
morning. In such circumstances, how do you expect well behavior from
police?
Policy suggestions
The key objective of the present study is to identify the factors those
cause and deteriorate the citizens’ trust towards police. Nevertheless,
here we bring some policy suggestions those have resulted from the
80 Exploring the Factors that Affect Citizens’ Trust in Bangladesh Police
interaction with the respondents (including both citizen and police) in
the survey and in-depth interviews. We got some good insights from the
in-depth interview that encourages us to provide few suggestions those
might help the policy makers.
Insulation from political intervention: Political interference in the
police is a tremendous problem in many developing countries including
Bangladesh. Policing practices in Bangladesh are fundamentally
different from modernized western policing practice as it is plagued
with politicization including high levels of external interferences and
undue pressures from local politicians, and these have shaped the public
image of Bangladesh police and have consequently inluenced public
satisfaction with police (Ahmed, 2013:10). It becomes necessary to
develop the functional autonomy of the police through the establishment
of an independent commission and independent oversight body to thwart
the political intervention.
Capacity building: Capacity building is a comprehensive term to cover
the whole aspects to make police professionalism. This is an initiative
to support the transition from a colonial style police force to democratic
police service by capacity building so that Bangladesh Police could
promote the rule of law, human rights and equitable access to justice.
Flawed recruitment process: The individual who spent money to get
the police job will naturally put emphasis on getting back his invested
money and become easy victim of corruption. There is a negative
perception about the departmental and central recruitment (recruitment
by Public Service Commission - PSC) process and practice. The
recruitment system faces the accusation of taking bribes and considering
afiliation ignoring the fair recruitment policy.
Reformation of legislation: Many key laws remain outdated and do
not match the needs of the contemporary Bangladesh. Bangladesh police
is inheriting the British colonial administration. The formal police was
created in 1861, and the main purpose was to ensure colonial exploitation.
Thus the Act limits Bangladesh police from taking the role of modern
police to include customary functions of police such as investigation,
arrest and providing social services (Champion and Hooper, 2003:120 in
Ahmed, 2013:03). The Police Act, 1861 needs to be revised to promote
greater accountability and oversight, functional autonomy, merit based
recruitment and to limit outside interference into police operations.
Democracy and Governance 81
Dealing most visible forms of corruption and negative hype: Police is
obviously not the only public institution infected with corruption. But it
is evident that the corruption in police is receiving wider public attention
owing to its high visibility through media, public discussions, rumor
etc. It was found that general trust of people considerably inluenced by
the news/rumor of sensational murder/robbery/corruption. This sort of
sensational cases should be dealt extremely carefully and the convicted
should be given exemplary punishment that can boost up the citizens’
conidence in the eficiency of the police. We admit that stopping
corruption completely is a long shot, but government can pick its ground
for ight corruption on a priority basis depending on the visibility of
corruption.
Positive media image: The commoners’ (non-users’ i.e. they never
interacted with the police directly on any issue) perception and
understanding of the police image is more likely to be inluenced by
media and political parlance (Ahmed, 2013, p.59). Increasing positive
media image is another area that required serious government attention.
A good media image about police can enhance the trust among citizens.
Along with highlighting the negative incidents or failure of police,
success stories of police should be circulated through the media. Police
should focus on increasing their media presence instead of avoiding
media.
Behavior and attitude of police: Good behavior and friendly attitude
of the police is found one of the signiicant factors that caused citizens’
positive attitude towards the police. This trend needs to be continued.
Government might arrange training sessions for all levels on good
customer/citizen relationship, business etiquette, communication etc.
They can hire or take the help from any private training/consultancy/
academic in this regard.
Promote initiatives to bridge the gap between police and citizen:
Taking initiative to build positive relationship between citizens and
police is crucial to narrow down the gap. In the interview, a police
oficer told, people should hold a positive view about us and cooperate
us in our investigation. In many cases, citizens are reluctant to provide
information proactively. Some of the praiseworthy initiatives to minimize
the alienation between citizen and police are the documentary on ‘Salute
to Police’, that shows citizens’ gratitude to Bangladesh Police; DMP’s
greeting to citizens with lowers at a cultural event celebrating Bangla
82 Exploring the Factors that Affect Citizens’ Trust in Bangladesh Police
New Year-1422 at Ramna, Dhaka; DMPs distribution of chocolates to
the general people on the occasion of their 41st founding anniversary.
Community policing: Willingness of cooperation of different civil
stakeholders is vital for any society. Here community policing can be
a good assistance to boost up the service level and minimizing gaps
between citizen and police. We suggest here community policing is
something in which government can put more priority that will produce
police – citizen cooperation.
Clarify the role of political party and their relationship with
police: It was found in the present study that people are exceedingly
concerned about political pressure over the police. This issue is widely
being echoed by the respondents. Comprehensive clariication might
be circulated about the freedom what police exercise in carrying out
their responsibilities. Different initiatives should be taken to remove the
anxiousness of citizens over the issue of political inluence and pressure.
Technology and social media: Police can use technology and social
media like Facebook, twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, google+, Flickr
to connect themselves better with the community and to enhance the
transparency. Social media can be used for many purposes: intelligence
gathering, dissemination of information, engagement with local
communities etc.
Good governance in police: Different indicators of governance are
highly correlated with building citizens’ trust in police. Hence, promoting
good governance in the police should be given serious attention with a
view to enhancing service quality and building citizens’ trust.
Discussion and Conclusion
In order to measure improvements in the police practices, it’s necessary
to have a starting point, and the irst step is to conduct a survey with the
public to get their views on the police, as well as suggestions on how
to improve things (Kurkuti, Embassy of Sweden, N.D.). This is exactly
what we tried to capture in our study; getting citizen views in terms of
their conidence in the police and ind out the reasons of their views as
well as seeking their suggestions.
Democracy and Governance 83
Civil servants in Bangladesh can be divided into three segments: corrupt,
not corrupt and transitional . Favorable environment and situation can
pull one to corruption (Monem and Baniamin, 2013). Institutions can
regulate the individual within their boundary. It is easier for the policy
maker to inluence the institutional structure rather than inluencing the
individuals, and focusing on institutional one it is more effective to attain
the goal. Efforts should be made both at strategic level in top and grass
roots level. Robert Kurkuti, program manager of Swedish-Albanian
community policing programme, describes that we work on two levels:
one overall strategic level that will make a long-term change of the role
of the police and its way of working, and one grass-roots level where it’s
easier to see more concrete results of an increased.
If we, however, look at the trend of citizens’ trust in Bangladesh police,
we can ind a striking fact that citizens trust was its lowest point in 2009
at only 16%. The second lowest point is 37%, which happened twice in
2007 and 2009. A non-democratic body governed the country that period
of time. There was a special kind of government called military backed
care taker government.
There could be two possible explanations of such incidence: irst reason
may be that ‘democracy generates more trust among citizens towards the
police department’. Perhaps, the undemocratic nature of the government
of that time was the reason for the low citizens’ trust in police Exercising
a better democratic practice plays vital role in building trust among
citizens. There is a positive correlation between ‘democracy’ and ‘trust’.
The other reason may be that citizens’ become highly critical regarding
policing practice while they were not afraid of political victimization,
they had a freedom of speech during that time.
The current survey result shows, unlike similar indings in China and other
nations, that people who themselves or their relatives and acquaintances
had reported a crime to police hold a more positive view about police
than the people who have not similar experiences. It implies that police
have negative hype which can be minimized by taking strong steps
against sensitive cases and very publicly visible corruption like taking
bribes on the street, taking proper steps to reach the non- user’s people
who are the majority of the population, build a transparent environment.
Our survey shows that 45% percent citizen do trust the police, which is
quite high compared to position of Bangladesh in the global corruption
ranking (Bangladesh ranked 145th in 2016). A recent study showed that
84 Exploring the Factors that Affect Citizens’ Trust in Bangladesh Police
even people who paid speed money were also satisied with the service
provided by the police (Ahmed, 2013), and it is assumed that user
satisfaction is correlated with trust Our indings shows slightly different
point of view, majority of the respondents in our survey identiied the
bribes as the number one reason for their distrust towards police. Here
the learning is citizen satisfaction, trust should not be assessed based
on only corruption incidence, though corruption and paying bribes may
be the most vital elements in decaying citizen trust; nevertheless trust
consists of many factors.
There may have some debate where some say that policemen should
concentrate on their core duties earnestly and lawfully while others opine
that police should not be people-friendly and at the same time not behave
like the enemy (Huda 2016). Our indings support the latter arguments,
polite and friendly attitude induce trust among citizens.
In modern time, citizens in Bangladesh do report to the police more than
even, though it is hardly related to the trust, they do report because they
are supposed to do that and they do not have any other option. People are
becoming more optimistic regarding the performance of police. 77% of
our respondents agreed that performing of police is increasing. We have
found a fairly good correlation between police performance and trust.
The factors which show strong relation with the trust are: citizens’ trust in
central government, trust in parliament, transparency and accountability
of police. One of our variables ‘age’ is not found statistically signiicant,
perhaps a comparatively a larger sample would bring a signiicant result
in terms of “age”.
Further research
The current research indings illustrate some factors citizens take into
consideration during the assessment of trustworthiness of Bangladesh
police. As we mentioned earlier that the level of trust in Bangladesh
police is luctuating in a quite haphazard way while different studies
argued for and against the trustworthiness of police with distinct set of
explanations. It would be very cumbersome effort to draw any speciic
conclusion based on such a small study in a particular point of time. It
demands more in depth studies and further explorations of the issue of
trust in police. Different approaches can be used to dig down the issue
to understand the pulse of citizens in real sense. For further studies
we would like to mention here that the variation of the level of trust is
Democracy and Governance 85
to be looked into the other public and political institutions like army,
parliament, central government, local government, political parties,
government ofices, etc. Another aspect of the study could be identifying
the section of citizens having more or less trust in public and political
institutions in Bangladesh. For example, whether ruling party supporters
have more trust in police, more educated citizens have more trust, and
similarly to what extent the other socio demographic factors inluence
the level of trust in police. In this paper, we tried to focus some of these
questions, but there are likely to be more innovative ways for explaining
the citizens’ trust in Bangladesh police.
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Democracy and Governance 87
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police.gov.bd, accessed on March 25, 2016.
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S. and Rothstein, B. (eds.), Good Government: The Relevance of
Political Science, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.
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of China and Taiwan. International journal of comparative and
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Police Quarterly, 12(2), 170-191.
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Ahmed, A. M. U. (2013). Public Satisfaction with Current Policing Practice: A Study on DMP. Criminology and Criminal Justice Program, Department of Sociology, University of Dhaka.
Askvik, S. (2011). The Significance of Institutional Trust for Governance in Bangladesh. Understanding Governance and Public Policy in Bangladesh, edited by Ishtiaq Jamil. Dhaka, MPPG, North South University, 91-110.
Askvik, S., & Jamil, I. (2013). The Institutional Trust Paradox in Bangladesh. Public Organization Review, 13(4), 459-476. DOI 10.1007/s11115-013-0263-6.
Bangladesh Police. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.interpol.int/ Member-countries/Asia-South-Pacific/Bangladesh.
Boateng, F. D. (2012). Public Trust in the Police: Identifying factors that shape trust in the Ghanaian Police. Washington State University.
Brown, B., & Reed Benedict, W. (2002). Perceptions of the police: Past findings, methodological issues, conceptual issues and policy implications. Policing: an international journal of police strategies & management, 25(3), 543-580.
Çakar, B. (2015). Factors affecting trust in police in Turkey. International Journal of Human Sciences, 12(1), 1381-1393.
Cao, L., & Hou, C. (2001). A comparison of confidence in the police in China and in the United States. Journal of Criminal Justice, 29(2), 87-99.
Correspondent (2014, March 05). Gazipure garir headlight e kalorong lagano kromosuchi (Campaign in Gazipur District to paint black the upper part of the Car Headlight). Kalerkontho. Retrieved from http:// www.kalerkantho.com/print-edition/priyo-desh/2014/03/05/58737
Daruwala, M., Joshi, G.P., & Tiwana, M. (2005). Police Act, 1861: Why we need to replace it?, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, India.
Embassy of Sweden (N.D.). Police reform to increase citizen's confidence. Retrieved from http://www.swedenabroad.com/en-GB/Embassies/ Tirana/Development-Cooperation/Development-Cooperation- with-Albania/Police-reform-to-increase-citizens-confidence-sys/, accessed on July 20, 2016.
Huda, M.N. (December 19, 2016). Beyond policing: Two sterling examples, The Daily Star, available at: http://www.thedailystar. net/opinion/straight-line/beyond-policing-two-sterling- examples-1331839.
Huda, Muhammad Nurul (2009). Bangladesh Police-Issues and Challenges. The University Press Limited, Dhaka.
Islam, N., & Ali, M. A. (2008). A study on service quality of the Bangladesh police. Retrieved from http://dspace.easternuni.edu. bd:8080/xmlui/handle/12345/226
Jamil, I., & Askvik, S. (2013). Citizens' Trust in Public Officials: Bangladesh and Nepal Compared. In In Search of Better Governance in South Asia and Beyond (pp. 145-163). Springer New York.
Jamil, I., & Askvik, S. (2015). Citizens' Trust in Public and Political Institutions in Bangladesh and Nepal. In Governance in South, Southeast, and East Asia (pp. 157-173). Springer International Publishing.
Jesilow, P., Meyer, J. O., & Namazzi, N. (1995). Public attitudes toward the police. American journal of police, 14(2), 67-88.
Kääriäinen, J. T. (2007). Trust in the police in 16 European countries a multilevel analysis. European Journal of Criminology, 4(4), 409- 435.
Kääriäinen, J. (2008). Why do the Finns trust the police?. Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention, 9(2), 141-159.
Khan, J. A., et. al. (1989). Report of the Police Commission of Bangladesh, 1988-89. Dhaka, Bangladesh: Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of Bangladesh.
Kim, P. S., Monem, M., & Baniamin, H. M. Enhancing Public Service Ethics in Bangladesh: Dilemmas and Deterrents. Retrieved from https://www.cmi.no/publications/file/5141-enhancing-public- service-ethics-in-bangladesh.pdf.
Mehtab, F.H. & Rahman, S.H. (2014). Identifying the Problems of Bangladesh Police & Rapid Action Battalion: Recommending Way Out, DIU Journal of Humanities and Social Science, Volume 2
Monem, M., Khan, S.O. & Baniamin, H.M. (2008). Bangladesh Police: Institutional Status, Current Status of Service Deliver: An Empirical Study. Center for Administrative Research and Innovation (CARI), University of Dhaka.
Momin, S.M. (2015, November 12). Police in Bangladesh: The image crisis, The Independent, Retrieved from http://www. theindependentbd.com/printversion/details/22659.
Montepare, J. M., & Zebrowitz, L. A. (1998). Person perception comes of age: The salience and significance of age in social judgments. Advances in experimental social psychology, 30, 93-161.
Police, B. (2010). The history of the Bangladesh police.
Rothstein, B., & Stolle, D. (2002, August). How political institutions create and destroy social capital: An institutional theory of generalized trust. In delivery at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Boston, August-September.
Safer world (2008). 'Human security in Bangladesh,' 2007/08, Mitra and Associates, Dhaka,
Sztompka, P. (1999). Trust: a sociological theory. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
The Daily Star-Nielsen. (2011). Daily Star-Nielsen Opinion Survey 2011 Government's Two Years' Performance Rating. http://www. thedailystar.net/suppliments/2011/01/govt's_second_year/p1.html. accessed on 4th August.
The Hofstede Center, Available online at: http://geert-hofstede.com/ bangladesh.html, accessed on March 21, 2016.
Transparency International, Global Corruption Barometer 2015. Available online at: http://www.transparency.org/cpi2015, accessed on March 28, 2016.
Transparency International, Global Corruption Barometer -National Result 2013, Available online at: http://www.transparency.org/ gcb2013/country/?country=bangladesh, accessed on March 29, 2016.
UNDP. (2003). Towards Police Reform in Bangladesh: Need Assessment Report. Dhaka: UNDP Country Office, Bangladesh.
UNDP (2009). Public Attitude Follow-up Survey FINAL REPORT, Police Reform Program, 2009 by Data Management Aid. UNDP. (2011). Baseline Survey on Personal security and Police Performance in Bangladesh. Dhaka: Police Reform Programme (PRP), UNDP Country Office, Bangladesh.
UNDP (2014), 'Public Opinion Survey on Personal Security and Police Performance 2014', Police Reform Programme (Phase II), Final Report, srgb.
Uslaner, E. M. (2013). Trust and corruption revisited: how and why trust and corruption shape each other. Quality & Quantity, 47(6), 3603- 3608. Vision of Bangladesh Police. (N.D.) Available online at: http://www. police.gov.bd, accessed on March 25, 2016.
Wagner, N., Rieger, M., Bedi, A. S., & Hout, W. (2016). Are women better police officers? Evidence from survey experiments in Uganda. ISS Working Paper Series/General Series, 615(615), 1-34.
Wangnerud, L. (2012). Why women are less corrupt than men. In Holmber, S. and Rothstein, B. (eds.), Good Government: The Relevance of Political Science, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.
Wu, Y., Poteyeva, M., & Sun, I. Y. (2012). Trust in police: A comparison of China and Taiwan. International journal of comparative and applied criminal justice, 36(3), 189-210.
Wu, Y., & Sun, I. Y. (2009). Citizen Trust in Police: The Case of China. Police Quarterly, 12(2), 170-191.
FAQs
AI
What factors contribute to citizens' trust in the Bangladesh police?
add
The study identifies factors such as police responsiveness, visible patrolling, and decreased corruption as contributing to trust. 75% of citizens feel police performance has improved recently.
How does political interference affect police performance in Bangladesh?
add
Political influence is viewed as a critical barrier, with 90% of respondents stating police are controlled by politicians. This interference diminishes police autonomy and affects public perception negatively.
What role does corruption play in shaping trust towards the Bangladesh police?
add
Corruption is perceived as prevalent, with 63% of respondents citing bribes as the top reason for distrust. The study reveals a complex relationship where despite acknowledging corruption, citizens also report increasing trust.
How do public safety perceptions correlate with trust in police?
add
The findings show that only 15% of citizens are satisfied with public safety, negatively impacting trust levels. Dissatisfaction with police services correlates with a lack of trust among those personally affected by crime.
How effective are community policing initiatives in building trust?
add
Community policing has shown potential, as citizens feel more secure with police presence in neighborhoods. Respondents indicate that inclusive policing efforts help bridge the gap between citizens and law enforcement.
May 08, 2025
Mizanur Rahman
North-South University of Bangladesh, Department Member
Working as a Lecturer at North South University, Dhaka. Mizanur's research interest includes non-governmental organizations (NGOs), institutional trust, human rights.
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Latafat Aziz
2015
IntroductionPolice is always recognized to be the attendants of the public. The society identifies them as curators of law and order in respective community. Nevertheless, vast majority of police experts and policing literature reveals that the police are usually hostile towards significant portion of the population all over the world (Alemika & Chukwuma, 2000). Schaefer (2000) defines police as a branch of government which is charged with the preservation of public order and tranquility, the promotion of public health, safety and morals, and the prevention, detection and punishment of crimes. Police is a sub system within the democratic set up of the state. In a democracy, it is vital that the operational styles of all public institutions are geared to report to the needs of good governance by ensuring that they draw sustenance from the people's support that elicit public participation in their working (Radelet & Carter, 1994).Trust means a depth and a sense of strong assurance...
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TRUST AND CONFIDENCE IN THE POLICE1
Ben Bradford
lse.ac.uk
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Investigating the Effects of Public Experiences of Police Corruption on Public Trust in the Police in Ghana
Dr. Theophilus Andoh-Robertson
The International Journal of Humanities & Social Studies, 2020
The trend of police corruption is actually a worldwide concern. In times gone by, the problem of police misconduct continues to be a significant element in the improvement of police institutions globally, though it's actually a larger problem in developing countries such as Ghana where police abuse as well as crisis have grown to be endemic leading to public mistrust of the police. For the real operationalization of the criminal justice system, people need to keep a specific amount of loyalty of the method. The police institution actually being one of the foundations of the criminal justice system should keep higher public trust in order to confirm sleek justice shipping. Nevertheless, public trust may solely occur once the police are actually seen to perform the tasks of theirs with fairness, professionalism as well as equity. In lighting of the deteriorated connection between the police and also the Ghanaian general public in phrases of loyalty, this particular analysis set out to look at the public encounters of police corruption and just how this impacts the degree of loyalty in the police in the Sekondi Takoradi Metropolis in the Western Region of Ghana. The empirical research evidenced that although numerous individuals in the Metropolis see the police as being corrupt, couple of respondents had immediate encounters of police corruption. Nevertheless, a lot of the respondents had vicarious or indirect happenings of police corruption which in turn are likely to affect the amount of theirs of loyalty of the police. Research suggests that, loyalty in the police is quite important as it improves the degree of public cooperation with the police as well as compliance with the law. With respect to decreasing the incidence of police corruption, the analysis suggests that, a specific oversight with the police must be made with target on the places of police recruitment as well as education, integrity and having both senior officers as well as the subordinates of theirs accountable in phrases of misconduct. Above many, there must be highly effective interaction between the public and the police to help you boost the connection as well as have confidence in amounts in between the police and the public.
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Public Confidence in the Police
Justice Tankebe
British Journal of Criminology, 2010
Nearly every study of police corruption hypothesizes that public experience of police corruption undermines the moral standing of the police. However, scarcely any studies actually test the hypothesis. My aim in this empirical study is to compare the effects of three dimensions of police corruption on perceptions of police trustworthiness, procedural justice and effectiveness. These three dimensions of corruption are personal experience, vicarious experience and subjective evaluations of police anti-corruption measures. The data come from a survey of people living in Accra, Ghana. The findings show that both vicarious experiences of corruption and satisfaction with reform measures explain assessments of police trustworthiness, procedural justice and effectiveness, but that personal experiences of police corruption do not do so.
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Corruption and Trust in Police: Investigating the Moderating Effect of Procedural Justice
Mahesh Nalla
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 2020
This article examines the role of citizens' contact with police and their assessments of officers' corruption in police in India. More importantly, we examine whether police procedural justice moderates the relationship between citizens' assessments of police corruption and trust. Data (N ¼ 845) from Delhi, India, suggest that consistent with the literature, citizens' trust in police is explained by their contact with police, fear of crime, police effectiveness, and corruption in police work. However, two significant findings emerged from this analysis. First, though citizens' perception of police corruption is a significant explanatory variable of trust in police, procedural justice moderates the strength of the relationship of corruption on trust. Second, the nature of contact experience reveals essential differences in the moderating effect of procedural justice on the relationship between corruption and trust in police. Finally, irrespective of the nature of contact experience, police effectiveness, and trust in police is related.
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Trust in the Police in Rural China: a Comparison Between Villagers and Local Officials
Ivan Y Sun
Asian Journal of Criminology, 2019
Although the past decade has witnessed the rise of studies on Chinese evaluations of the police, rural villagers' assessments of the police remain under-researched. Drawing upon performance theory and survey data from China's countryside, this study tested whether variations in satisfaction with government performance and life are linked to villagers' and officials' trust in county and local/town police. We found that villagers displayed lower levels of trust in the police than local officials. Higher satisfaction with government performance and integrity were associated with greater trust in county police among both villagers and officials. Villagers' greater satisfaction with crime control and safety led to their stronger trust in both county and town police, but such satisfaction was not significantly related to officials' trust in both levels of police forces. Rural residents' generalized trust and particularized trust were associated with a greater likelihood of viewing the police as trustworthy. Meanwhile, female respondents, both villagers and officials, and higher-income officials were more likely to view the police as trustworthy. Directions for future research and policy are discussed.
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Public perceptions of trust in the police in Abuja, Nigeria
david usman
2019
What the public thinks, believes and feels about the police determines if people will obey or disobey them, if they will support the police in fighting crime, and contributes to how and whether the police will succeed in maintaining order. Notwithstanding these incontrovertible facts, scholars and researchers in Nigeria have paid only minor attention to this crucial subject by viewing the problem from the fact that the police have failed in performing its obligations. So far, no research has deeply explored the relationship between police and the public in Nigeria and ordinary people's perceptions of police corruption and trust and the historical background that forms the context of this. This research addresses this gap in knowledge through original empirical research into public perceptions of the police, experiences of contact with the police and views about the relationship of police behaviour and legitimacy. Using procedural justice as the main theoretical model, this thesi...
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General Public Perception Regarding Police Department and Factors That Influence Police Image in Public: A Case Study of District Kasur, Pakistan
Waqas Shabbir
2018
This study was attempted to investigate the general public perception about police department and factors that influence them perception. Policing is a major controlling part of citizen and is necessary for modifiable their behavior, controlling crime and protecting the citizens. The objective of the study is to identify major factors which influence police image in the public. The study was conducted among 250 citizen of district Kasur using a five-point Likert scale structured questionnaire. The researcher used multistage simple random sampling. The respondents of the study were advocate, doctor, labour, student and businessman. Results revealed that corruption, favoritism, political interference, bad behavior of police personnel, lack of accountability and misuse of power by police department are influence public image and they considered that police department only took action when FIR was registered by economically or politically strong people of the city. Study found that pol...
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