A Bird’s-Eye View from the Field—How a Police Experts Network Can Be an Important Link in Facilitating Sustainable Community-Oriented Policing in Post-Conflict Contexts

Police reform in post-conflict societies is increasingly important in international peace support operations. Post-conflict situations are complex, and addressing security and insecurity issues is therefore challenging. Evaluations, field reports and research have frequently highlighted challenges related to how assistance is provided in connection with police reform. A common finding in these evaluations is that police reform programmes without local ownership and community involvement and support have little chance of succeeding. Community-oriented policing (COP) has therefore become an important policing philosophy and strategy in this context. This paper addresses issues related to the challenges in implementation of police reform by exploring the perennial question of how police assistance can be better utilised in a sustainable manner in post-conflict contexts. The paper is divided in two sections. In the first, we identify some key challenges facing international police assistance. Here we discuss six main challenges grounded in secondary literature comprising academic research and police mission reports. In the next section using the example of a broadly based police experts network (PEN) established in connection with the EU-funded research project ‘Community-Based Policing and Post-Conflict Police Reform’, the paper discusses how such a network can play an important role in contributing to policy formation, education and training programme development for use in police reform projects. The creation of the e-handbook and e-learning shows the potential for such a network to work and contribute in a cross-disciplinary manner. Furthermore, we identify four key ways in which this type of network can contribute to improved international police assistance. The work is exploratory and contributes to understanding of the complexities of police assistance in post-conflict contexts.

Police reform in much of the developing world reflects a preoccupation with either shifts away from paramilitaristic policing models or restoration of law and order in post-conflict societies. For many Pacific Island Countries (PICs), dialogue on reform reflects the prioritization of internal organizational restructuring and capacity building, with minimal emphasis on responding to ever-changing stakeholder demands. What is also common is for police reform efforts to closely align with prioritized focal areas of donor countries or powerful neighbours in developed countries with different contextual realities. Here we discuss police reform efforts in a PIC that has been the recipient of a major regional post-conflict state-building intervention and highlight the complexities specific to piecing together the police reform architecture. We also make reference to Solomon Islands to support our argument that problematic police reform can be largely attributed to focal imbalances between internal and external transformation agendas. The article concludes with a summary of the constraints associated with police reform in post-conflict contexts and recommendations for navigating the reform process.

Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) police/rule of law missions in the Western Balkans are increasingly guided by externally imposed normative agendas that respond primarily to EU internal security needs rather than functional imperatives or local realities. In line with these needs, EU police reform efforts tend to prioritise effectiveness and crime fighting over longer- term democratic policing and good governance reforms. In practice this means that police reform initiatives are technocratically oriented, yet value ridden fitting EU security concerns and needs. As a result, the police reform process can be—and often is—disconnected from the political and socio-economic reforms necessary for long-term stability and sustainable peace. Police assistance in Bosnia and Herzegovina has been shaped by a determined albeit questionable focus on organised crime and corruption. The focus of EU police reform in Macedonia on primarily crime-fighting aspects of policing has compromised thefunctioning of the Macedonian police. Similarly, the politics of (non-)recognition of Kosovo's self-proclaimed independence and the intrusiveness of EULEX Kosovo's executive mandate contravene meeting local challenges.

Police Reform and Power in Post Conflict Societies: A Conceptual Map for Analysis Post-conflict reconstruction and police reform are located in the security-development nexus where global and state power moves towards individuals. In recent years, there has been an increased investment by the EU and the UN to contribute to police reform in post conflict societies. This article offers a conceptual map for the analysis of power across contexts through police reform interventions in post conflict societies. It draws on various theories of power to explain the conceptual-contextual gap. This map facilitates the observation of the police as a technology of power and as a projector of power in post conflict societies. ‘Unintended-empowerment’ through power projection is introduced to explain how police as an organisation and policing as a practice are often undermined. The article concludes with an outline to assist the analysis of the conceptual-contextual gap in police reform interventions and outcomes in post conflict societies through power optics.

One of the largest donor-funded projects since 1994 concerning reform of South African policing is described in this paper. The project, Assistance to Policing in the Eastern Cape, targeted policing work in a province acknowledged to rank lowest in the country on numerous human development indicators. The paper outlines the various components of the project, sketches the overall implementation of its objectives, and attempts to arrive at a provisional assessment of the project's impact in an environment inhospitable for administrative efficiency. It concludes with a brief review of developments at the end of the project cycle.

Aldershot : Ashgate ( 2006 ) 264pp . £55.00hb ISBN 0-7546-4719-6 Democratic Policing in Transitional and Developing Countries is held together on the one hand by a persistent call to link democratic policing reforms to democratic socio-economic development, and on the other hand by an emphasis on the centrality of understanding the peculiar historical and contemporary socio-political conditions that shape policing in each transitional society. It refutes both top-down and one-size-fits-all approaches to a foreign policy of promoting democratic policing in transitional societies, and reminds us that police reforms can ultimately be achieved by harnessing local knowledge and securing the active involvement of citizens. The book consists of three parts. The first part is mainly a theoretical overview of policing and democratic development. Its four chapters are all written by the editors themselves. Chapter 1 discusses a variety of factors with which any successful democratic transformation of police forces in transitional and post-conflict societies has to reckon. Pino and Wiatrowski argue that these distinctive, but ultimately, interrelated factors – such as citizens' participation in local institutions, levels of social disorganisation, police structure, institutional legitimacy, political stability, and capitalist globalisation – operate at international, national, and sub-national and individual levels. The key issues stressed relate to the need for adequate understanding of the particular historical and current socio-political context of policing –‘each state has its own history and problems that must be studied and dealt with on a state-by-state basis’ (p.11). Equally importantly, sustainable democratic reforms require that these factors are addressed comprehensively. Chapter 2 examines the adequacy of the community-oriented (COP) model of policing for export to transitional societies. It identifies and discusses inherent flaws in the COP model, which must be addressed if it is not to ‘become the same repressive and undemocratic police practices under a new label’ (p. 68). What is democratic policing? What are the key principles that underpin it? Chapter 3 provides a succinct discussion and answers to both of these questions. Pino and Wiatrowski raise and address an important issue in Chapter 4, which very few police scholars have considered in their exploration of the modalities for implementing democratic policing in transitional societies. This is the issue of the relationship between crime prevention, democratic institutional reconstruction or restructuring, and socio-economic development more generally. It also examines the role of local knowledge, and how societies can generate and sustain the overall issues linked to police transformation. The second part of this book consists of case studies of selected countries. It begins with Mullick and Nusrat's excellent discussion (in Chapter 5) on the current state of policing and institutional reconstruction in Iraq, and the scope for successful reforms. The authors argue that the negative effects of the occupation by multi-national forces; the insurgency; and private and paramilitary security forces, have convoluted the prospect for police reforms. In Chapter 6, Shanafelt is concerned with South Africa, where he discusses the history of policing from colonial rule to apartheid, and argues that South Africa's current high crime rates and the rapidity of public recourse to vigilantism are both the products of historical forces operating at sub-regional, national and international levels. In Chapter 7 Engel examines policing reforms in Northern Ireland based on the Patten Report. Engel furnishes us with a historical account of the conflicts in Northern Ireland and the role of the police in these conflicts, and points out some of the difficulties in the implementation of the democratic model of policing. The case of Kazakhstan is the focus of Snajdr's discussion in Chapter 8. Grant, Grabias and Godson conclude the discussion with an exploration of the history of democratic reforms. In the final section of the book, the editors pull together both the theoretical discussions and the lessons from the country-based case studies. Their general conclusion is that the design and implementation of democratic police reforms in transitional societies can be achieved if such efforts are pursued in tandem with a broader comprehensive plan to promote democratic development. Democratic Policing in Transitional and Developing Countries offers arguably the most comprehensive statement thus far on the depth and breath of the task of promoting democratic transformation of policing in transitional or post-conflict societies. I like this book very much for its common theme on the centrality of the special historical and contemporary socio-political forces that shape policing in each society, and the need to link police reforms with the broader concerns of democratic socio-economic development. The manifold lessons it provides for democratic police reforms in transitional societies should make it a primary reference for academics, development planners and all those who are engaged in promoting democratic reforms of any kind in these societies.

In Afghanistan, police reform is an important focus of international efforts. After over a decade of assistance, however, there are still daunting challenges of public trust and police effectiveness. From a civilian perspective, the role of the police is a crucial one—and very different from that of the military. Communities, being at the very heart of security challenges, are well positioned to understand the intricacies of security and development. A police service able to work closely with communities plays an important role in managing conflict in the long run. Recognizing this, Afghanistan’s Ministry of Interior Affairs (MoIA) has steadily increased its efforts in community-oriented policing (COP), despite a deteriorating security situation since the withdrawal of US troops in 2014. This paper explores how COP in Afghanistan links with local communities and institutions to ensure both peoples’ security and trust. It begins by considering police-community relations through a broad lens of human security, which comprises the social, economic, political, cultural and legal aspects of their everyday lives. We then examine international assistance to police reform, how the Afghan police have developed their COP philosophy, and how this has played out in re-defining police-community relations. Using field data from Nimruz Province, we then look at the role of local institutions of chowkidari and shura in addressing people’s insecurities, and opportunities for linking these with COP efforts of the police. We conclude that there is a real potential for COP in Afghanistan that his locally owned and sustainable, if enough attention is given to inclusive processes and developing creative and flexible trust-building relationships with local institutions and organizations.

Community-oriented policing (COP) has become an important innovation in policing throughout the world, with variations among countries and regions, and over time. We identify and discuss contextual factors that determine the formation of COP policies, by investigating two contradictory national COP policies in Kenya: Constitutional Community Policing and Nyumba Kumi. Our study draws on primary data collection and secondary literature on contextual factors. The two competing Kenyan COP policies show, first, that there are significant variations in the nature and content of policing policies defined as COP; secondly, that the diversified and competing local contexts in transitional countries, involving reform processes while key elements of the past regimes are maintained, create significant room for manoeuvre for the actors involved. That enables the formation of radically different COP policies, in Kenya represented by a reformative COP policy as well as a repressive COP policy. Thirdly, the Kenyan case illustrates the risk of subversion of core intentions of COP: government actors have promoted COP policies focused more on information flow than on democratization and police reform. As a result, COP in Kenya has become more of an instrument for surveillance than a tool for protecting the citizenry. This development demonstrates clear historical continuities with colonial policing, significantly enabled by the emerging threat of terrorism. We argue that COP policies building on such criteria are counterproductive and are likely to fail. To avoid the misuse of the label ‘COP’ and legitimation of repressive policing practices, a common coherent definition of COP is required—one that at least ensures the needs and rights of citizens and local communities.

The US and UN are two of the largest patrons of police reform programs worldwide: between 2000 and 2020, the US provided approximately $160 billion in police assistance to more than 130 countries worldwide; simultaneously, the UN spent over $77 billion supplying police-oriented security sector reform to countries experiencing or having experienced armed conflict, doing so through the deployment of peacekeeping missions and within the offices of UN Police, the UN’s hub for police reform and training programs. Though these two providers seek the same overall objective, they often vary in their specific goals: the US often engages in foreign police reform to promote its own national security objectives by increasing institutional capacity, while the UN adopts police reform programs to promote institutional constraint. The two models have important implications for how we understand bilateral and multilateral reform programs, including activities performed and recipient countries targeted across both time and space. Using originally collected data on US security assistance programs as well as a careful analysis of original data on UN mandates, this article provides the first quantitative exploration of these two different modes of assistance, comparing and contrasting their objectives and where, when, and how they are provided.

The research study examined aspects of efficiency, autonomy, and accountability of the Police Reforms Act of 2017 launched in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Pakistan. The Police Act 2017 introduced modernized professional standards while creating trust between the police force and the public. The research considered the past issues stemming from[1] political control and administrative inefficiency. The research evaluates the organizational impact of these reforms alongside public policing methods and active issues that require continued attention. The Public Management Theory and Institutional Theory served to explain how the Police Act affects decentralization and transparency. In addition, the study used a quantitative research design in which the focus was on the KP police department. The Study utilized purposive sampling and data was collected from Deputy Superintendents of Police (DSPs), Assistant Superintendents of Police (ASPs), and Superintendents of Police (SPs), through structured questionnaires. 150 officers were purposively surveyed and the data were analyzed using SPSS for statistical conclusions. However, it was found that the end of political interference and the reforms significantly improved police autonomy, merit-based promotion, and community-based policing. Crime reduction was also recorded, but new crime patterns were noted which needed further adaptation. Finally, the study concludes by pointing out the KP police reforms have made some positive strides, while political influence and resource allocation should be dealt with sustainable success.

Police Reform

As a starting point, this article takes the assertion by Clifford Shearing that there is a lack of synchronisation between patterns of policing in established democracies and the international policing assistance programmes they pursue. This provides a background against which to examine concrete examples of multilateral (UN and EU) and bilateral (UK) assistance to post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina. The discussion of these programmes is set in the context of ongoing debates on democratic policing, and explores the problems and needs experienced in policing post-war and post-socialist Bosnia and Herzegovina. International responses to these problems and needs are examined, and a mixed picture emerges in which multilateral assistance schemes appear to suggest that Shearing's concerns remain pertinent ten years on, while bilateral assistance from the UK suggests that there are circumstances in which international policing assistance escapes the framework of the state and recognises the importance of non-state actors in security provision.

Individual values are very much related to the successful implementation of community‐ oriented policing (COP) policies. Utilizing Rokeach value indicators, this study seeks to add to the very limited empirical research in this area by examining the values of police recruits in Mexico. This paper examines the values of police recruits in Mexico City during a time of major organizational reform and is formatted in line with the approach of Zhao, et al. (1998). Surveys were administered in 1998 and 2002 which focused on changes in recruit values in relation to community‐oriented policing. The findings of this paper suggest that police recruit values have not changed substantially over time, or across national lines, even in a department with active COP recruiting efforts and substantive institutional reforms. Further, the values of the recruits are not likely consistent with the implementation of community policing reforms. These results suggest that Mexico will continue to have difficulty implementing community‐based police reforms and is not likely to accomplish such through recruitment efforts alone. Policy implications are discussed.

'European Policing'? A Critical Approach to European Union Civilian Crisis Management with Special Reference to Macedonia

Twenty years into the spread of community-oriented policing (COP) in Latin America, initial assumptions that it would lead to successful transformation of policing in the region are being confounded by continuing insecurity and police violence. Given the disconnect between COP objectives and its implementations, there is a need to reassess the assumption that COP is necessarily a democratic form of policing. This article examines the development of COP in the Dominican Republic with a focus on citizenship policies. It underlines that COP projects have vastly different impacts on individual rights. The inherent community membership boundaries citizenship policies set can condition which groups are to benefit from COP initiatives and which ones are deemed vectors of insecurity. This study is primarily based on a qualitative study including interviews, document analysis, and observation. It finds that Dominican Republic Police (DNP) reforms have improved service provision directed at select groups, which enjoy the benefits of more democratic policing. However, these reforms have also led to an increase in police persecution of Haitian minorities. I demonstrate this population is a target for harder policing because of new citizenship legislation that categorised Haitian descent minorities as outsiders to the community. This adds a distinctively undemocratic flavour to efforts to transform public safety provision in the country.