Public Perceptions of Police in Fiji

Abstract

Members of the public may have positive, negative, or mixed perceptions of police. Previous research has demonstrated that public perceptions are shaped by their experiences and interactions with police and can influence trust, perceived legitimacy, and future cooperation. Limited research has examined public perceptions of police in small island developing states. This article explores public perceptions of police in Fiji, an island state in the Pacific region. This study employed a mixed-method approach based on qualitative interviews ( n = 21) and quantitative surveys ( n = 150). The findings show that only a minority of the participants had a favorable view of police, while the majority had a negative perception. The results reveal that police corruption and brutality are two significant concerns of the public that the Fiji Police Force will need to address to gain public respect, trust, confidence, and legitimacy.

Policing the COVID-19 pandemic: Police and public perceptions of enforcement of health protocols in the Fiji Islands

“…This finding is similar to those found in some of the literature (e.g., Perry & Jonathan-Zamir, 2020;Boon-Kuo et al, 2021;Ghaemmaghami et al, 2021;Heidinger & Cotter, 2020;Nouri & Kochel, 2021;Sargeant et al, 2021;Sibley et al, 2020;Yang et al, 2021). When the public is faced with an emergency or threat, they respond with a general sense of cohesion and positivity (Chand et al, 2022a;Clements, 2020). However, around 12% of participants disagreed and mentioned that they were not satisfied with police performance and suggested some improvements.…”

“…The public's perception of police officers' work during COVID-19 in Fiji was largely positive. This finding of support for the police is a bit surprising because previous research shows little trust in the police (Chand et al, 2022a, Wallace et al, 2022. For example, a study by Wallace et al (2022) in the small islands of Trinidad and Tobago found that public support for police was high during the COVID-19 period when normally public support is low.…”

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“…As shown by the research of A. Chand et al (2022), the public's perceptions of police performance are shaped by their experiences and interactions with the police, which can affect trust, perceived legitimacy, and future cooperation between the public and the police in preventing criminal offences.…”

Legal socialization, perceptions of the police, and delinquency in three Caribbean nations

“…Similarly, little insight can be drawn from research on the legal socialization process in other SIDS given relatively little attention to the topic. Public perception of police in Pacific Island nations is also generally low (Chand et al, 2022;Howes et al, 2022). In a recent study of community satisfaction with the police in Guam, Howe et al (2022, p. 325) note the importance of "a focus on procedural justice and police performance to contribute to improved community satisfaction with police service provision."…”