Knowledge Management and Police Peacekeepers: Experiences and Recommendations

Abstract

The number of police officers deployed to international peace operations has increased substantially over the past 20 years, and the tasks they have been mandated to perform have become more complex, particularly with regard to supporting host state police reform and development. The insights and experiences of deployed police are valuable for building understanding of what works and what does not work in peace operations and peace building more broadly. Such feedback could be used by PCCs to inform and tailor police pre-deployment training programmes, support mechanisms for deployed officers, and post-deployment reintegration practices. The mission experiences of police also provides valuable information about the police component's mandate implementation. This report explores a selection of police-contributing countries (PCCs), examining their mechanisms for deploying police officers to international missions, and then, on return from international missions, for collecting information on their experiences. From this overview, we identify good practices as well as gaps in knowledge generation, and offer some recommendations for improving the collection, management and application of mission-relevant police knowledge.