Robert Perito, a senior program officer with the United States Institute of Peace, recounts his experiences in international police recruitment and training initiatives, including in Haiti, Kosovo, Bosnia and Timor-Leste. He notes that while effective vetting in the post-conflict context is difficult, it is critical that there be systems to determine who can get into the police. Vetting should be seen as an ongoing process. He notes that in most cases police should be recruited as individuals rather than as entities, and he cautions that security problems are generally not solved simply by integrating militia or illegally armed groups into the official security force. Perito goes on to discuss lessons learned from police training programs in Kosovo and Haiti. This includes the need to adapt training programs to the local context, needs, and skill capacity, in addition to the importance of integrating field-based training with in-class basic skills training. He states that it is imperative to build the capacity of the government structures tasked with effectively managing, supporting and administering the new police force. Training new recruits in mass, he argues, is not effective if the body that governs them is corrupt and lacks necessary capacity. Finally, he notes that while community policing can have a role in police reform, it should not necessarily come at the expense of critical police training.
At the time of this interview, Robert M. Perito directed the United States Institute of Peace's Security Sector Governance Initiative under the Centers of Innovation. He also was a senior program officer in the Center for Post-Conflict Peace and Stability Operations, where he directed the Haiti and the Peacekeeping Lessons Learned projects. Perito came to USIP in 2001 as a senior fellow in the Jennings Randolph Fellowship program. Before joining USIP, he served as deputy director of the International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program at the U.S. Department of Justice. In that role, he was responsible for providing policy guidance and program direction for U.S. police programs in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Timor-Leste. Perito previously was a career foreign service officer with the U.S. Department of State, retiring with the rank of minister counselor. Perito became involved in international police reform in 1993 when, following the so-called Blackhawk Down incident in Somalia, he worked on the creation of a new Somali police training program. Following U.S. intervention in Haiti in 1994, he led an effort to create a police training program in support of a viable Haitian National Police. Perito taught at Princeton, American, and George Mason universities and earned a master’s in peace operations policy from George Mason.
Lucas Kusima talks about reforms in policing prompted by the change in Tanzania's government leadership in 2005. He describes the shortfalls in recruitment of local police and the need to change training methods to improve professionalism and a greater understanding of human rights. He talks about the difficulties of modernizing equipment and information technologies when funding must come from the communities the police serve. Kusima discusses the medium-term strategic plan for reform that is part of the national vision for development by 2025 and the methods used to compile a reform document that is inclusive and builds citizen confidence. He describes the unexpected obstacles of trying to bring about reform such as the need to amend laws and the resistance to change by the police force. Financing remains the biggest challenge, he says. The foremost achievement was building the confidence of the public, and he talks about ways public confidence in community policing is measured.
Jim Tillman discusses recruitment, politicization and oversight of the Bosnian police from his perspective as program manager for the International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program. The previous network of police high schools, in which students committed to police work at age 14 or 15, was dismantled in favor of an application-only process beginning at age 21. He discusses how the United Nations took measures to prevent corruption in the recruitment process, such as giving preferential treatment to familial relations or requiring that cadets pay bribes for admittance into a police training school. Each Bosnian policeman received training in human dignity as part of an effort to reorient the police from a mission of protecting the state to protecting the citizens. Tillman says the Yugoslav police served to protect the interests of the state rather than the interests of the citizens, and the old guard that occupied positions of leadership in the Bosnian police were less amenable to the new community policing ethos than were the new, younger recruits. In addition to human-dignity training, ICITAP stressed in training that the police carry a polite demeanor and neat dress to facilitate daily interactions with their communities and set up an anonymous complaint bureau to improve accountability. Tillman explains that ICITAP set up crime databases to allow the Bosnian police to track crime rates by type and region, in order to develop more targeted and better informed policing strategies. He says depoliticizing the police was a struggle because the old guard was still in place. One innovative approach to shielding police commissioners from political influence and from cantonal ministers of the interior in particular was the establishment of independent panels to recommend candidates for the position of police commissioner.
At the time of this interview, Jim Tillman worked in Bosnia-Herzegovina as a program manager for the U.S. Department of Justice’s International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program. He began his career as a plant manager for the American textile firm Brown Group, after which he became a police officer in the U.S. His first international policing experience was in Haiti, where he worked on police reform and development. He later worked in Azerbaijan, Ukraine and throughout the Balkans.
Ibrahim Idris, the deputy commissioner of the Nigerian police, recounts his experience working in the United Nations mission in Liberia as it relates to police reforms. He explains how the Liberian National Police was disorganized after the war. The U.N. Police deactivated the national police, opened a police academy and built more police stations throughout the country. Idris states that the initial focus was on individual capacity development. He describes recruitment, vetting and training processes. He identifies gender challenges, as women tended to be less educated and less represented in the national police. Hence, the U.N. set up a special education program for women who wanted to join the police service. Idris explains that the U.N. later concentrated on institutional development, which involved depoliticization, management and leadership, technical specialization and the creation of legal documents like the Police Act and the duty manual. He also discusses the role of establishing an external oversight body and strengthening Police Community Forums in fostering police accountability.
At the time of this interview, Ibrahim Idris was a United Nations police operations coordinator and the officer in charge of the U.N. mission in Liberia. He arrived in Liberia in 2004 as a U.N. police adviser. In his homeland of Nigeria, he was the deputy commissioner of police. He joined the Nigerian police service in 1984 as a cadet officer. He later served as a crime and traffic officer. In 1987, he transferred to the Police Mobile Force, a special unit that dealt with riot control and anti-insurgency operations. He served as the commandant of the Mobile Police Training School from 1998 to 2004.
Aaron Weah, the national program assistant at the International Center for Transitional Justice, talks about police reforms in Liberia. He discusses the deactivation of the former national police and the process of recruitment, vetting and training. He explains that the new police force had a human rights component, and it accounted for equal geographical representation, that is, ethnic representation, to limit politicization. Weah also identifies the challenges faced when carrying out the reforms, which included the presence of armed ex-combatants, inadequate logistics, police underpayment, lack of public confidence in the police and the issue of fewer women in the force. Based on a study he conducted, Weah advocates learning the best police practices from other countries, for instance, the development of police-military relations, collaboration between the security sector and the civil society, and the amalgamation of security institutions.
At the time of this interview, Aaron Weah was national program assistant at the International Center for Transitional Justice in Liberia. Before that, he worked for the Center for Democratic Empowerment. Initially, he was a research assistant and later, he became the program associate. He served as the focal person on the Security Sector Working Group, which was a coalition of leading civil-society organizations in Liberia that were committed to research and advocacy with the aim of guiding public policy processes on the reform of security agencies. As part of the working group, he visited Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and South Africa to try to identify best practices in police reform.
Benson Bana, a senior lecturer on public administration and human resource at the University of Dar es Salaam, discusses police internal management in Tanzania. He talks about the central focus areas of police reforms: community policing, professionalization and modernization. He stresses the need to define the organization’s core values so as to change people’s mindset and to attune the legal administrative framework and the Police General Orders to the set vision. Bana also notes the significance of human-resource planning. As part of the reform process, he recommends that police install human-resource management information systems to deal with such issues as staff acquisition, training and attrition. He also advocates the formation of a counseling unit to assure the police’s health and safety. In addition, Bana advises the police to set standards and to refine their performance management system so that it reflects modern methods. He highlights the significance of improved legal literacy among the public, support from political leadership, internal and external pressure and the overall demand for accountability and democracy in propelling police reforms. To promote growth and efficiency within the police force, Bana encourages public-private partnerships—provided that the assistance offered does not compromise the police’s integrity.
At the time of this interview, Benson Bana was a senior lecturer on public administration and human resource management for the Research and Education for Democracy in Tanzania program at the University of Dar es Salaam. He also consulted and conducted research in the same fields. A Tanzanian citizen, Bana earned a doctorate from the University of Manchester in the U.K. He worked in the Tanzanian public service, and as a human resource training and development manager in a multinational company.
Eka Tkeshelashvili describes police reforms in Georgia. Shortly after it assumed power, the reform government fired the entire traffic police force because of rampant corruption. Few serious consequences flowed from this decision, though some of those discharged may have joined criminal groups. She says that the high level of organized crime and paramilitary activity that afflicted Georgia in the early 1990s was more or less under control. In rebuilding the police force, she says, the government recruited candidates with the proper credentials and training, and pay levels were increased significantly. The Police Academy was equipped with more up-to-date facilities and curricula. Prison facilities were reformed and human rights for prisoners gained improved protection. Police management was decentralized. External oversight of police activity and of the prisons was improved, and the public was given new ways to report and comment on police performance.
At the time of this interview, Eka Tkeshelashvili was the international security adviser to Georgia's National Security Council. For the last half of 2008, she served as Georgia’s foreign minister. Earlier that year, she was prosecutor general. In 2006 and 2007, she headed the Tbilisi Court of Appeals. In 2007, she was minister of justice. She first joined the government in 2005 and served as deputy minister of interior. She graduated from the Faculty of International Law and International Relations at Tbilisi State University in 1999.
Assistant Inspector-General of Police Richard Moigbe discusses police restructuring in post-conflict Sierra Leone. He speaks of efforts to create a unified security structure in Sierra Leone by including many areas of government. He continues by explaining the efforts of the police force to assess their numbers and their weaknesses. Realizing their poor image with the public, Moigbe discusses his involvement with the Complaint Discipline and Internal Investigation Department, which gave voice to public complaints against the police. He also details new efforts to increase community-based policing and curb armed robbery.
At the time of this interview, Richard Moigbe was the assistant inspector-general of police in Sierra Leone. His responsibilities were to develop operational policies, coordinate the work of all police commanders, and provide strategic leadership. Moigbe joined the police force in 1987 as a cadet officer. Later, he worked with the anti-smuggling squad, the forgery and fraud squad, the operations department that dealt with robberies and burglaries and with homicide. He served as a commandant of the police training school. He was in charge of the research and planning department and the special investigations bureau at the police headquarters. Moigbe set up the Complaint Discipline and Internal Investigation Department and the Crimes Services Department that integrated the Criminal Investigations Department, the Special Branch and other police intelligence operations.
Neela Ghoshal talks about the challenges facing the Police Nationale du Burundi, including human-rights abuses committed by certain units within the police. These problems were linked to the integration of military personnel and former rebels into the police as part of a peace process without adequate supplemental training. Ghoshal lays out the recourses for those with human-rights or other complaints against the police and describes the existing accountability structures within the police. She talks about attempts at depoliticization, noting that officials tried to include commanders with different backgrounds in the various command structures within the police. The move was an effort to avoid creating chains of command where all the links come from either the same rebel group or the army. She also talks about the difficulty of running human-rights training programs and the challenges of monitoring these programs' effects.
At the time of this interview, Neela Ghoshal was a researcher at Human Rights Watch in Burundi. She earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan and a master's in international relations from Yale University, both in the U.S. She previously worked at the Bronx Defenders in New York. She participated in this interview in her personal capacity and not as a representative of Human Rights Watch.
Gail Teixeira shares her experiences with policing reform and domestic security issues during her tenure as minister of home affairs in Guyana, first as acting minister in 2004 and then officially in the post from 2005 to 2006. She describes in detail the process of establishing a functioning civilian police force, including the utilization of community-based rural constables and volunteer neighborhood police as well as the more macro-level issues of donor relations and compliance with international norms as identified by the United Nations. She provides a compelling account of the challenge of adhering to the cultural and historical expectations of the people at the same time that outside financial assistance and training is going on. The decentralization of the reforms and the policing system are of particular interest, especially in the face of drug-related gang activities.
At the time of this interview, Gail Teixeira was serving as a member of Guyana's Parliament as well as an adviser to President Bharrat Jagdeo on governance. Her comments center on her experiences as minister of home affairs from 2004 to 2006.
