Abstract
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.
Highlights
The need for more knowledge on the complex security and humanitarian challenges in post-conflict societies is critical
Using field data from Nimruz Province, we look at the role of local institutions of chowkidari and shura in addressing people’s insecurities, and opportunities for linking these with community-oriented policing (COP) efforts of the police
Afghanistan links with local communities and institutions to tries, regions and even villages in terms of the nature of ensure both peoples’ security and their trust. It interaction between the police, civil society and community analyzes the evolution of COP in Afghanistan, looking at members. While this diversity opens many pathways of enthose activities which were implemented in line with inter- quiry on COP, this paper focuses on the process of reform, national police reform processes, those pilot projects which and on how police-community relations are cresprang from civil society initiatives and are grounded in lo- ated and practiced in the case of Afghanistan through the cal institutions, customs and norms, and those initiatives local institutions of chowkidari and shura
Summary
The need for more knowledge on the complex security and humanitarian challenges in post-conflict societies is critical. This means that Nimruz has remained police reform, the International Police Coordinating Board under the international radar and under-researched, which (IPCB) was established in 2006 comprising ambassadors makes it possible to study police-community relations out- of member countries (donors), and international organizaside of the direct influence of the international community, tions involved in security sector reform [19] Through their providing an interesting contrast to the project-based cases quarterly meetings chaired by the Minister of Interior Affairs, of COP in other areas of Afghanistan that we examine. These aspects issues and challenges facing the country, including human make Nimruz a unique case in some ways, the rights, gender issues, training, and police-community refindings can be relevant for understanding lations Both the IPCB and SPAG were to contribute to police-community relations in other provinces in that they improving police professionalism in order to provide qualprovide new perspectives on how to understand the variety ity security services to citizens and strengthen the trust of local institutions in post-conflict settings. Afghanistan policing expertise through SPAG likely contributed to the gradual shift away from military strategies in police reform
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