Doing research with police elites in Ghana
| Author | Emmanuel Addo Sowatey,Justice Tankebe |
| Published date | 01 November 2019 |
| Date | 01 November 2019 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1748895818787022 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1748895818787022
Criminology & Criminal Justice
2019, Vol. 19(5) 537 –553
© The Author(s) 2018
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/1748895818787022
journals.sagepub.com/home/crj
Doing research with police
elites in Ghana
Emmanuel Addo Sowatey
University of Ghana, Ghana
Justice Tankebe
University of Cambridge, UK
Abstract
Much of our methodological insights from researching policing in sub-Saharan Africa comes
from studies of frontline officers. Consequently, many important methodological questions
about research on senior police officers remain unanswered. This article addresses this gap by
drawing on insights from interviewing senior officers in Ghana. It focuses on the challenges and
opportunities in negotiating access, establishing trust during interviews and dealing with ethical
dilemmas. We highlight the role of informal social networks and cultural practices of surprise
visits, what we have termed strategic ambush, in securing formal approval for our research.
However, this represented mere or putative access for which deference towards institutional
gatekeepers was key to its actualization. Deference towards officers and extensive knowledge
of the policing environment helped to put the senior officers at ease, and enhanced the chances
of a successful interview. Finally, we offer reflections on our responses to unexpected ethical
dilemmas that we faced in the field.
Keywords
Deference, Ghana police, intruding outsiders, police elites, strategic ambush
Introduction
Until recently, there had been little research on policing in Africa. Now, however, a size-
able literature is accruing. It includes ethnographic accounts of everyday police work
Corresponding author:
Justice Tankebe, University Lecturer, Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge, Sidgwick Avenue,
Cambridge, CB3 9DA, UK.
Email: JT340@cam.ac.uk
787022CRJ0010.1177/1748895818787022Criminology & Criminal JusticeSowatey and Tankebe
research-article2018
Article
538 Criminology & Criminal Justice 19(5)
(Beek, 2012; Beek et al., 2017; Faull, 2018; Hornberger, 2011; Sowatey and Atuguba,
2014), quantitative analyses of police–public relations (Boateng et al., 2014; Bradford
et al., 2014; Tankebe, 2009), and enquiries into the challenges posed by democratic
police reforms (Faull, 2016; Hills, 2007, 2008). Even so, much of what we know about
policing in Africa, despite its abundance of methodological insights, derives from studies
of frontline officers (see, for example, Beek, 2012; Faull, 2018; Marks, 2003; Tankebe,
2010, 2014). We know almost nothing about research with senior police commanders. As
Hills (2007: 407) notes, ‘little is known about the role, background, and political or
administrative functions of commissioners. There are no systematic comparisons of their
social origins, career paths, rewards, or philosophies of policing.’ The paucity of research
on elite police officers in Africa means that we have no equivalent to the methodological
insights emanating from Robert Reiner’s (1991) study of chief constables in England and
Wales. What special challenges arise in conducting research on senior police officers in
an African context, and how can they be overcome? How can access be negotiated? How
do we handle the interview in such a way as to maximize data quality?
To address these gaps in our knowledge the present article draws on experiences of
conducting in-depth interviews with 81 senior police officers in Ghana. The project,
titled Chief Police Officers in Ghana, sought to gain an insight into aspects of democratic
governance in a post-colonial society by exploring the views of senior officers on police
institutional capacity, police governance and accountability, and orientations to human
rights. The interviews sought to answer the following questions: how do senior police
officers in Ghana perceive their roles and legal powers? What are their perspectives on
crime and its control? What are their management and policing philosophies? What is the
nature of their relationship with elected officials, traditional authorities and other elites?
Who are these officers? From what social backgrounds have they come to occupy their
current positions of responsibility in implementing general policy and day-to-day opera-
tional matters?
Ghana has a national police service headed by an Inspector General of Police (IGP). It
is structured into 11 administrative regions, with each region sub-structured into divisions
and each division sub-structured into districts, and districts into police stations. This arti-
cle is based on the authors’ experience of interviewing 11 regional commanders, 24 divi-
sional commanders and 46 district commanders between March 2016 and March 2017.
Senior officers in Ghana fall under three broad ranks: Inspector General of Police and
deputy; commissioner – comprising commissioners, deputy commissioners and assistant
commissioners; and superintendent – which comprises superintendents, deputy superin-
tendents and assistant superintendents. The regional commanders interviewed were either
assistant or deputy commissioners, while divisional and district commanders fell within
the superintendent ranks. The interviews each lasted between one and three hours, and all
but one were audio-recorded. Only in seven interviews were both authors present. In
them, we took turns to cover topics that we had agreed beforehand. This arrangement
seems to have worked well. There was only one exception, when a regional commander
appeared terse and cold in his responses to questions by one of the authors. We both rec-
ognized the posture. The questioner, therefore, tendered an excuse and left the command-
er’s office. The commander then appeared more relaxed, and the rest of the interview
To continue reading
Request your trial