IGP Raises Concern Over Citizens Recording Police Officers In Public

The Inspector-General of Police, Olatunji Disu, has questioned the extent to which citizens can legally record police officers while they are performing their official duties.

Disu raised the concern during an engagement with the President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, SAN, asking whether members of the public should be allowed to record police officers in the same manner they might record activities in other professional settings.

The IGP specifically questioned whether lawyers would permit people to enter their offices and secretly record them, or whether court proceedings could be recorded freely without restrictions.

According to him, the issue had become a major concern for the Nigeria Police Force following a recent court judgment on the recording of police officers.

Disu said the judgment had led some members of the public to begin using their phones to record police officers in different situations, a development he described as “very, very demoralising” for the force.

He said, “Can we come to your offices and record you in your offices? Can we come to your offices and record you in your offices? Can we record even in the courts? Can we record?

“We were discussing it yesterday, and we discussed even the issue of our offices, people coming with concealed cameras. We checked the law. Our officer, the DIG in charge of planning, came up with later write-ups and a lot of authorities. He cited a lot of authorities. And that one probably will decide.”

Disu appealed to the NBA to send a representative to a police symposium scheduled to take place in Owerri, Imo State, where the legal implications of recording police officers would be discussed.

He said the recent judgment had “really jolted” police officers because members of the public had started recording them in various locations.

“We’ll beg you whether you can send somebody to our symposium. We have one this month in Owerri. The recent judgment on recording of police officers. That one really jolted our officers and it became something of concern to us because the citizens started coming out with their phones to record police officers everywhere they saw them, and this can be embarrassing,” the IGP said.

He added that some Nigerians had taken the practice beyond monitoring officers while on duty, alleging that policemen were also being recorded in restaurants while eating.

“Some even went to restaurants to start recording police officers who are eating. Everywhere you see a policeman, you start recording the policeman. So this is something that was very, very demoralising to us.

“We are doing very difficult jobs, and we need all the concentration in the world to be able to do our jobs,” he said.

However, Disu clarified that the police were not seeking to prevent members of the public from recording officers in public places while they were performing their duties.

He said citizens should instead exercise restraint and avoid using recordings of police officers as entertainment or social media content.

“We are not saying they cannot exercise their right of recording officers in the public places while doing their jobs, but they should put restraint and not turn our police officers to content for their skits or anything,” he said.

The IGP also pointed to the difficult and dangerous conditions faced by officers deployed to checkpoints and other operational locations.

He said many officers spend long hours in forests, bushes and along highways, sometimes in isolated locations, as they work to protect members of the public.

“If you look at where we have our officers on checking points, there are dangerous areas, thick in the forest, thick in the bushes, on the highways, middle of nowhere, and these officers will stay there morning and night to do their job to keep other people safe,” Disu said.

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