Police accountability

The role of the police complaint response unit, Nigeria

Bibliographic Data

ID21372505
AuthorsIruebafa Lily Oyakhirome (0000-0002-6353-4216, University of Pretoria, corresponding author)
Year2026
Volume99
Issue2
Pages322-341
Publication date2026-06-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Police Journal Theory Practice and Principles (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0032-258X • E-ISSN: 1740-5599
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0032258x251357474
OpenAlexW4412368918
LanguageEN
References cited5

Nigeria’s Police Complaint Response Unit (CRU) serves as an internal accountability mechanism to receive and resolve complaints against police officers. This study evaluates the CRU’s effectiveness using the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime assessment criteria for internal police complaint systems. The findings reveal that while CRU successfully serves as a bridge to improve the police-citizen relationship and its use of digital technologies leads to greater accessibility to trained officers to resolve complaints, however, critical deficiencies undermine its effectiveness. Transparency gaps fail to provide adequate public information about investigative processes and disciplinary outcomes. The unit’s organisational structure remains opaque with unclear procedures, while digital divide challenges limit rural access. The study’s recommendations include enhancing transparency through detailed public reporting, developing public accessible operational manual, and clarifying legislative mandates to strengthen police-citizen trust

Accountability · Business · Complaint · Cru · Legislature · Political science · Public relations · Transparency (behavior) · Unit (ring theory) · Cybercrime and Law Enforcement Studies · Law · Policing Practices and Perceptions · Psychology · Public Administration · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access