Policing is crucial to how Africans experience the freedoms of democracy and determines to a large degree the levels of economic investment they will enjoy. Yet it is a neglected area of study. Based on field research, this book reveals the surprising variety of people involved in policing besides the state police. Indeed many Africans are faced with a wide choice of public and private, legal and illegal, effective and ineffective policing. Policing in Africa is very much more than what the police do. It concerns the activities of business interests, residential communities, cultural groups, criminal organizations, local political figures and governments. How people negotiate this Smulti-choice of policing options, and the implications of this for government and donor security policy, is the subject of this book. It covers policing in all its forms in Sub-Saharan Africa, including two case studies of Uganda and Sierra Leone.

The key argument of this book is that state policing plays a vital role in the realm of security sector governance, but that African police have several failings that are direct outcomes of their historical development: they are often violent, brutal, corrupt and politicised. As institutions, Africa's national police forces still tend to resemble those established by colonial powers in their structure and conduct, and are typically mistrusted by the very people for whom they are meant to ensure security and safety.

In Police Administration in Africa, Ejakait S.E. Opolot lays the foundation for future developments and trends in police administration in the former British colonies in Africa. Opolot emphasizes the dynamism between theory and practice. As such, Police Administration in Africa establishes a model to be replicated in other parts of the Third World.

Policing is undergoing rapid change in Africa as a result of democratization, the commercialization of security, conflicts that disrupt policing services, and peace negotiations among former adversaries. These factors combined with the inability of Africa‘s state police to provide adequate protection have resulted in the continuing popularity of va

This wide-ranging collection offers fresh insights into a critical factor in development and politics on the African continent. It critically examines and illustrates the centrality of policing in transition societies in Africa, and outlines and assesses the emergence and impact of the diversity of state and non-state policing agencies.

State police forces in Africa are a curiously neglected subject of study, even within the framework of security issues and African states. This work brings together criminologists, anthropologists, sociologists, historians, political scientists and others who have engaged with police forces across the continent and the publics with whom they interact to provide street-level perspectives from below and inside Africa's police forces.

The book discusses police practices in Uganda, which are understood as fluid and reflective of the socio-political, cognitive and discursive contexts within which the Uganda Police Force (UPF) exist. The author was immersed in the UPF both as an ethnographer and a consultant. The book demonstrates how police officers navigate clashes between personal interests and those of the UPF shedding more light on the divergences and convergences between policies in theory and policies in practice. It contributes to the literature on police research, especially to our understanding of policing and the anthropology of the state in Africa. It highlights that the Ugandan police engages in political policing and its role is stretched beyond its legal mandate. The target audience is twofold: first, academics interested in police studies and the undercurrents of interface bureaucracies in Africa. Second, practitioners focused on improving state and police services in African contexts.