Police Capacity Research Articles

Policekeeping is the Key: Rebuilding the Internal Security Architecture of Postwar Iraq

The main problem following a US-led international intervention in Iraq will be re-establishing widespread and sustainable governance. It is probable that with the removal of repressive political authority, state control will falter and crime rates boom. This can be countered through an international civil administration with law and order as a guiding mandating principle. Order could be ensured by ‘policekeeping’, via a large ‘blue force’ of primarily Muslim gendarmerie from surrounding nations. Reliance on military peacekeeping is precarious because of the political sensitivities in the case of Iraq. The blue force would form the foundation of the new internal security architecture in Iraq, and would act to prevent fragmentation and civil war. The role of policekeeping is to preempt and combat ethnic, religious, and political violence, economic crime and the establishment of shadow networks, as well as policing regular crime including those of property and public order. A further vital task would be the development of domestic judicial and policing capacity, which provide an exit strategy for the international mission and the beginnings of a representative and regionally devolved governance structure. These tasks could be financed through a modification of the current oil for food programme, finally transferring this wealth back into Iraqi society. The goal would be to construct a self-sustaining democratic and economically functional state governed by the rule of law, one that can serve as a political beacon for the region.

THE AFRICAN STANDBY FORCE

The African Union is preparing for its enhanced role in the maintenance of peace and security by establishing a Peace and Security Council that is tasked with identifying threats and breaches of the peace. To this end, the AU has recommended the development of a common security policy and, by 2010, the establishment of an African Standby Force capable of rapid deployment to keep, or enforce, the peace. The ASF would comprise of standby brigades in each of the five regions, and incorporate a police and civilian expert capacity. G8 leaders have pledged support for the AU proposal through funding, training, and enhanced co-ordination of activities. For its part, the AU will need to undertake a realistic assessment of member capabilities, to clearly articulate its needs, and to set realistic and achievable goals. The latest plan for establishing a rapidly deployable African peacekeeping force will require something that similar proposals have lacked: the political will to fund and implement a long list of recommendations. Success will ultimately be judged by the AU's future responses to situations of armed conflict. Even if such responses are largely symbolic in the short term, a sufficient display of political will among African leaders could inspire the confidence needed to galvanise international support.

Policing and the Rule of Law in Mozambique

Policing concerns a central issue of democracy, namely the rule of law. It is the rule of law that determines the degree to which political and human rights are enjoyed equally. Unlike the established democracies, Mozambique is trying to establish the rule of law after it has introduced democracy. This article examines how successful it has been in the area of democratic policing. Not surprisingly, given the legacy of the civil war and the one-party state, plus limited resources, the exercise is faltering. At present, the conduct of the police is not consistently subject to the rule of law, nor are they adequately accountable, accessible, impartial, representative or transparent. It will be very difficult to achieve backwards democratization in this area unless resources are channelled into strengthening police capacity and there is the political will to impose change.

Policing, securitization and democratization in Europe

We have witnessed over recent decades the extension across Europe of an enhanced policing capacity—one comprising a complex, ever-shifting mix of informal professional networks, inter-governmental co-operation, and nascent supranational institutions (notably Europol). These developments have been accompanied— and justified—by a set of public narratives that highlight the threat posed by various `criminal' and `alien' Others (migrants, drug traffickers, organized crime syndicates and so forth) to Europe, its borders and its citizens. How though can we best account for these developments and assess their likely trajectories? What do they signify about the kind of political order that is being constructed within the European Union? Is Europe today being governed through security and, if so, with what effects? In taking up these questions this article has two aims. First, to develop a heuristic framework that can help us make better sociological sense of both the meanings and interests that are competing to shape the field of European policing, and the processes of securitization that presently dominate it. Second, to consider the problems of authorization and legitimation raised by the onset of thinly accountable police processes and institutions at the European level, and to offer a sketch of the issues that must be addressed, and the criteria that might orientate us, in seeking to advance—in the policing domain—a project of postnational democracy.

Governing European Policing: Some Problems and Prospects

In this article, I address some of the 'democratic deficits' raised by the development of a cross-border policing capacity within the European Union and consider how these might best be made good. The argument unfolds in three parts. I seek, first of all, to clear a little ground by offering a critique of two currently prevalent and - in certain political quarters - appealing responses to European policing's democratic shortcomings. Secondly, I identify some key properties of the European policing field that future regulatory strategies must take proper account of. I then outline a framework for regulating European policing networks in ways that sustain considerations of equity and democratic accountability and sketch some tentative institutional proposals that can advance such a 'project'. A brief conclusion assesses the prospects for this project within contemporary European politics.

Models of police oversight: A critique

This is a theoretical paper that addresses the question: What is the best form of control of police conduct? The paper cites the inadequacy of traditional mechanisms such as accountability to the law and elected officials; and focuses on the current debate, which divides primarily over the division of labour between internal affairs and a specialised external agency. Recourse to external agencies can be divided into two further models. ‘Civilian review’ involves independent auditing of internal investigations and disciplinary decisions. It is argued that police capacity for subversion of civilian review makes this a weak modeL In contrast, the ‘civilian control’ model entails genuinely independent investigation and adjudication. The civilian control model should reduce the risk of subversion when complaints processing is coupled with pre‐emptive forms of monitoring and investigation, including the use of hi‐technology covert surveillance. Although often criticised as weakening police responsibility for maintaining discipline, this model leaves large scope for police involvement in complaint mediation, and in integrity development through human resource management strategies.

Autonomy, Regulation and the Police Beat

In this article, the historical development of the police beat in the context of liberal governance is explored. As a mechanism of surveillance, the beat was a continuation of rules of the nightly watch, characterized by a tight control over watchmen by fixing person, post and time. As a site of police autonomy, the patrol beat facilitated the furtherance of the enterprise of the amateur constabulary and cultivated police officer dominion by matching police authority to territorial imperatives. In this way, discipline and autonomy have been carved into the mobilization of police in an economy or surveillance and discretion. The legacy of night and day patrol offered an initial temporal organization to this economy, with prohibitions and permissions by time and place. Rather than compromising liberal distinctions, this patrol bifurcation allowed their perseverance by structuring police capacity to intervene into the lives of citizens. But while the legacy of liberal autonomy in the police beat has served to maintain police discretion in the short run, technological innovations offering enhanced time and space compression may in the long run threaten that autonomy and, with it, an important grounding of liberal consent policing.

Heurs et malheurs de la police communautaire au Royaume-Uni

The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Community Policing in the United Kingdom. At a time when, in France, we are looking towards creating closer links between the police and the population, it is imperative to take a look at British community policing, which is often identified as a model. While a traditional institution, community policing in practice is capable of adaptation, whether it be in Northern Ireland because of the opposition between Catholics and Protestants, or in England and Wales due to the presence of poorly integrated ethnic minorities and social conflicts. Over and above the solutions adopted to respond to these problems, it is the capacity of the British police to recognise its faults and to reconstitute social links in a permanent way which must be folio wed as a model example.

The police and crime control: Effectiveness, community policing, and legal change

Current research on the level of police resources, patrol and investigation strategies, community policing, and the likely impact of changes in the legal framework confirms the simple truth that the police capacity to influence crime has always been vastly overstated. Unfortunately, the preventive police forces that emerged in Anglo-American jurisdictions in the wake of Sir Robert Peel's “new police” were linked directly and for the first time to the crime rate. While there was little that they could actually do about the crime rate per se, questions of police effectiveness, resource allocation, and the adequacy of police powers have tended to be answered on the basis of such data ever since. The need now is to find different ways of measuring and evaluating police work. It may be that the major contribution of community policing is to highlight precisely this issue by shifting the focus of policing away from the crime rate and by forcing police departments, politicians, and academics to confront the real capabilities of the police and to devise methods of evaluating them and promoting them to an increasingly skeptical world.

Comparison of Recall by Policemen and Civilians under Conditions of Long and Short Durations of Exposure

In a field situation policemen and civilians were asked to recall details of a target person to whom they had spoken 30 sec. earlier. The target person had either (a) asked for the time (Short Exposure) or (b) asked for directions (Longer Exposure). Over-all police were significantly more accurate than civilians but only at longer exposure intervals, there being no difference at short exposure. The number of errors by civilians and police did not differ but there was a significant interaction due to police being poorer at shorter intervals than longer intervals of exposure and civilians being poorer at longer intervals than shorter. Civilians produced more ‘no answers’ than police over all, with no difference for civilians between long and short durations but police giving more after short than after longer exposure. These results were interpreted in terms of qualitative and quantitative differences in processing capacity of police and civilians.

Police and Prosecutor Practices and Attitudes Relating to Interrogation as Revealed by Pre- and Post-Miranda Questionnaires: A Construct of Police Capacity to Comply

Police and Prosecutor Practices and Attitudes Relating to Interrogation as Revealed by Pre- and Post-Miranda Questionnaires: A Construct of Police Capacity to Comply