Angolans highlight police corruption and use of excessive force

Between March and September 2020, human-rights groups documented 10 killings by Angola’s police and military, including the deaths of five boys aged 14-16 (Amnesty International, 2020). While accusations of police brutality are hardly new in Angola, critics have compiled scores of recent cases of excessive force, arbitrary arrest, and extrajudicial killing by the police, often as part of repressing public protests related to COVID-19 restrictions, precarious living conditions, and political rights (Human Rights Watch, 2020; Amnesty International, 2022; Marques de Marais, 2018). Interior Minister Eugênio César Laborinho added fuel to the fire when he appeared to justify police abuses by telling a national news conference that “the police are not on the streets to distribute sweets, nor to give chocolates” (DW, 2020). This dispatch reports on a special survey module included in the Afrobarometer Round 9 (2021/2023) questionnaire to explore Africans’ experiences and assessments of police professionalism. Findings in Angola show that a majority of citizens experience insecurity and fear in their neighbourhoods and say the government needs to do a better job of reducing crime. Among Angolans who interacted with the police during the previous year, many report having to pay a bribe to get help or to avoid problems. Few express trust in the police, who are more widely seen as corrupt than other key state institutions. A majority of Angolans believe that the police stop drivers without good reason and use excessive force in managing public demonstrations and dealing with criminal suspects, and many say the police engage in criminal activities.