In this interview, Kayode Idowu describes his role as Chief Press Secretary for Attahiru Jega, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). He explains the transparency and accountability that Jega has brought to INEC through changes such as maintaining open, honest communication with the media and taking responsibility for problems as they arise. For instance, Idowu recounts the delay in the April 2^ndelections, explaining that INEC chose to postpone elections rather than use non-official result sheets that were not secure.  He also comments on how the rise of social media has changed media relations, making both INEC and the conventional media more accountable. Idowu discusses his experiences handling the public relations surrounding election violence, distinguishing the security aspects from the electoral aspects of the issue. In response to election violence, INEC initiated cooperative efforts with security agencies; Idowu describes this process as well as INEC’s communication and cooperation with other groups, including Parties, civil society, and the State Electoral Committees. Throughout the interview, Idowu explains how his background in print media helps him understand and relate to the media with whom he works. 

Johan Burger talks about crime and policing in South Africa. To fight crime, he contends that the focus should be on its root causes, including, socioeconomic conditions, and the criminal justice system. He advocates the adoption of an integrated strategy that involves governmental and non-governmental departments to address these conditions and political factors. Burger discusses the National Crime Prevention Strategy that was adopted in 1996. The strategy failed due to lack of a shared understanding of crime and policing among politicians, lack of funding, a disregard for socioeconomic conditions, and the inability of police to deliver immediate and visible results on crime prevention. He also describes the various operations under the Community Safety Plan and the National Crime Combating Strategy, which focused on serious and violent crimes, organized crime, crimes against women and children, and improving service delivery. Burger recounts his experience working on the change-management team, which dealt with reforming the police. He talks about police demilitarization and rank restructuring. He describes the confusion and the decline in police morale and discipline that emerged as a result. Burger also challenges community policing. While he acknowledges instances of success, he argues that it is idealistic in terms of its expectations on how the police, in partnership with communities, can fight crime. He identifies sector policing as being more practical and tangible. Though it is still a joint effort between the police and the community, the police resolve only what they can and refer what they are unable to deal with to other government institutions.    

Graham Muir describes the work of the United Nations Police as part of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti from 2005 to 2006.  He goes into detail on multiple aspects of the U.N. mission, including the meaning of the U.N. mandate to the police force as opposed to the military. He also discusses the integration of the existing national police force with the U.N. international police force.  Muir also describes the U.N. police role in training and reform and how that role interacted with security.

Adrian Horn reflects primarily on his five-year posting as manager of the Community Safety and Security Project in Sierra Leone, a program of of the U.K. government's Department for International Development. During his time in Sierra Leone, he assisted the Sierra Leonean police in overhauling their recruitment procedures and their training programs, and he comments in detail on the challenges and successes. He also talks about the importance of an effective public-relations system for a police service trying to re-establish legitimacy and credibility. He runs through some of the practical anti-corruption initiatives he developed with the Sierra Leonean police, and he reflects on his own management-by-walking-about style. Horn talks about "local-needs policing" as a conceptually similar but more clearly defined form of community policing, and details the successful role of community/police partnership boards.

Case Study:  Building Strategic Capacity in the Police:  Sierra Leone, 1998-2008

Julie Fleming describes how the International Crime Investigative Training Assistance Program started a pilot community policing program with five U.S. officers working in four municipalities in Kosovo. She gives details about the process of recruitment of community committees and the 12-week training program in Vushtrri; the project brought together young people from different ethnic backgrounds. At the time of the interview, it was present in 20 municipalities. A study showed long-term improvement in terms of freedom of movement, inter-ethnic relations, police-community relations, and other aspects. In her opinion, the main success of the project was that it was community-driven, although it suffered setbacks due to the political events of 2008. She also discusses her views on the successes and failures of community policing in Kosovo.

Case Study: Building the Police Service in a Security Vacuum: International Efforts in Kosovo, 1999-2011

Khalfan H. Khalfan, executive director of the Organization of People with Disabilities, talks about his and others' efforts in Zanzibar to enfranchise disabled people.  He addresses the challenges involved in ensuring disabled people can exercise their right to vote and explains the particular difficulties disabled people face in accessing polling stations, casting their votes in private, and avoiding election violence.  He also speaks briefly about his role as an election observer in Zanzibar’s first multiparty election in 1995 and some of the irregularities he noted during that election.