The data collection process
Police officers
The data was collected on a group by group basis. Beginning with the police, I had to present a copy of the access letter given from the office of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to the office of the police regional commander for the Greater Accra and the Ashanti regional. This approach was for each regional commander to grant me access to the district commanders, and subsequently, to the individual police officers. Thus, granting the request or access had to be carried out through a chain of command.
However, the day after receiving the clearance letter from the office of the IGP, with great excitement, I went to the police at the district level in Accra to submit a copy of the letter to the district commanders for the various police stations to seek access to conduct the interviews. But I could not proceed with the data collection. Although a formal access letter had been authorised from the IGP’s office (which is the highest authority within the ranks of the Ghana police), this did not mean the I could immediately have proceeded with the data collection at the district level without going through the chain of command.
Hence, I was redirected to present a copy of the letter and seek clearance from the office of the regional police commander, before proceeding to the district level police offices.
This process effectively demonstrates recognition and maintenance of police authority within the ranks and file of the Ghana police service. Following this these experiences I had in the Greater Accra region, upon arrival in Kumasi (the Ashanti region), with a copy of the clearance letter, firstly, access was sought from the office of Ashanti regional police commander prior to proceeding to the police at the district level.
Secondly, at the district level, both in Accra and Kumasi, clearance was sought from the district commanders and my intentions of conducting field observations were also made known. Where the commander was not available, I was asked to wait. After meeting the district commander to discuss the focus of the research, clearance was granted. The meeting was held in the district commander’s office, either with the commander alone or with two or three deputy district commanders. The meeting provided an opportunity for me to formally introduce myself and present a copy of the access letter obtained from the office of the IGP in Accra. It also provided an opportunity to be enlightened about the some of the duties, as well as the number of districts under the jurisdictions of each police unit or station. During my visit to some of the police stations, I had the impression that the police might have engaged in a degree of impression management. On a few occasions, I was also taken on tour around the station by the district commander, and thereafter I was introduced to most, if not all, the senior ranking officers within the station and they offered to provide me with any necessary assistance.
After being taken through the protocols of the police station I visited both in Accra and Kumasi, I was then introduced to potential participants. This led to a discussion of formal issues, such as confidentiality, the voluntary nature of their participation in the research and anonymity (as discussed previously). The interviews were conducted in the comfort of respondent’s offices, except in one police station, where the district commander offered his office for the entire duration of the interview whilst he attended to other issues out of the station.
Retired police officers
The interviews for the retired police officers were held in the greater Accra region. As discussed previously. after years of service in the police, many ex-service personnel retire to their hometowns (villages). Hence getting access to them was beyond my limit and would have entailed additional costs. Nonetheless, two retired police officers (Bill Nti and Akos Kumarlo) were recruited. Bill Nti was contacted via a family member and Akos Kumarlo was accessed through church membership. After the initial telephone contact, Bill asked me to meet him at his work place the following day to discuss the research further. Having retired from the police service, Bill was working for a private policing firm in Accra.
Akos, the second respondent asked that I visit her at her residential address to discuss the research further after the initial contact. An agreed date was set, and once again, upon arrival, I introduced myself and discussed the focus of the research. In addition, I presented a copy of the access letter from the office of the IGP. She subsequently offered
to take part in the research. The interview setting was in the comfort of her sitting-room and used the audio digital recorder with her permission. Having completed the interviews in the Greater Accra region, I later travelled to Kumasi, in the Ashanti region for the second phase of the interview with police officers. The distance between Accra and Kumasi is about 270km (about 168miles) and the journey should have taken about 4 hours on a coach. However, due to road construction work, the journey took about 7 hours. Upon reaching Kumasi, with the respondent’s permission, all the data was digitally recorded. However, 4 officers felt uncomfortable with me recording the data and opted for the interview to be handwritten.
Hence, I took notes during the interview in a pocket size note book to the satisfaction of the respondents. Further, upon leaving I dictated the notes already taken using the digital recorder. Besides respondents (active and retired police officers) receiving calls on their personal cell phones during the interview process, most of the interviews were conducted with limited interruptions. Except for one, which the officer knocked and came into the office, wishing to witness how the data was being collected. However, she did not stay for the entire duration of the interview and I did not get the opportunity to interview her.
Eight were recruited from Accra and five from Kumasi. It is worth mentioning that three out of the total fourteen police were females. See table 2.2 above for description of participant.
Private entrepreneur and commercial driver participants
There were different interview settings for the above participants. Some of the following
characteristics entailed an African bus or lorry station, prospective passengers being called via a megaphone to get on the right vehicles, different but loud music being played from records shops and the sounds of food vendors and street hawkers, and so forth. To minimize the impacts of these factors, the commercial drivers were interviewed in the comfort of their buses and lorries. With most windows shut, the interview took place whilst they were waiting their turn to take passengers at the various lorry stations I visited in Accra and Kumasi. There was one bus station that was not so noisy compared to those I had already visited. There, the interviews were held in an open trunk of respondent buses (an example is displayed below).
Figure 9: Depicting some of the interview settings used.
Participants' choice of taking part in the interview in an open trunk, may suggest that, they identified this setting as a paramount to their comfort, as well as their safety allowing them to fully express their views on issues related with street-level police corruption. Lastly, the interviews for private entrepreneurs were held within their business premises or shops, away from their customers. However, intermittently, the
interview had to be paused to enable them (the market traders) to attend or provide services to their customers. All the interviews lasted between 40 to 60minutes. However, I did not get as many participants as I originally expected. The audio recorded data was first transcribed or converted into a textual data prior to further analysis. It is also worth noting that the collection of the data expanded beyond the six months of fieldwork and continued through e-mail messages as well as telephone conversations with some of the participants. My fieldwork also included data collection through observations with commercial drivers within the suburbs of Accra, and from Accra to Kumasi and vice versa. I was assigned to a driver on the day of my field observation and conducted seven observations. The data collection tool used were pen and an ‘A3’ size notebook. I had a very positive field observation because I felt completely at ease as the drivers were very enthusiastic to contribute towards my data collection. However, these observations served as my first direct experience working with commercial drivers. A detailed reflection of my field observation is provided in Chapter four.