Discourse Analysis of the Structure/Organization of Police Content

This study titled; “Discourse Analysis of the Structure/Organization of Police Content” examined features of language used in selected police/accused discourse in Adamawa State Special Anti-Robbery Squad {SARS}, police division, Yola. The corpus of the study is made up of the 9 written statements of confessions, letters of undertaking and police investigation reports by participants in police/accused discourse in three different case files. The data collected was based on availability, accessibility and sustainability which were analyzed. The study is a descriptive research which made it qualitative. The study used the Grice (1975) cooperative principles, Sinclair and Coulthard’s (1975) discourse analytical framework for its theoretical framework. The study analyzed the Structure or Organization of Content of Police/Accused Discourse; how they organize facts of a case and the findings, how every details of time of event is an essential factor, how offenses have different degree of prosecution and how some linguistic ‘acts’ like declaratives, comment, reply/informative, directives and so on helps in analyzing the structure or content of police discourse during crime investigation. The study revealed that no information is irrelevant during police/accused interaction. All information is relevant if the puzzles are connected. The study recommends English for Specific Purposes (E.S.P) Practitioners to look into this research for future referrals especially by course designers, more study should be embarking on similar areas and government should give maximum support to the police force.