private security

Bruce Baker

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1
Interviewers
Gordon Peake
Name
Bruce Baker
Interviewee's Position
Professor of African Security
Interviewee's Organization
Coventry University
Language
English
Nationality of Interviewee
British
Town/City
Coventry
Country
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract

Bruce Baker draws on his policing experience in a number of African countries.  He talks about community policing and the vital though sometimes controversial role of non-state security actors in areas where the police struggle to extend their authority.  He also discusses the intersection of non-state security groups and customary justice, and he offers reflections on donor and host-country partnerships.

Case Study:  Building Civilian Police Capacity: Post-Conflict Liberia, 2003-2011

Profile

At the time of this interview, Bruce Baker was a professor of African security and director of the African Studies Centre at Coventry University, U.K.  He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Sussex and master's and doctoral degrees from Coventry University in the U.K.  He has lectured at Coventry University and been a Research Fellow at Rhodes University in South Africa.  He ran research projects on security issues in a number of African countries and conducted research for government and private organizations in the U.K.  He wrote numerous articles and books, including "Escape from Domination in Africa: Political Disengagement and its Consequences" (James Curry, 2000), “Taking the Law into Their Own Hands: Lawless Law Enforcers in Africa” (Ashgate, 2002), and “Security in Post-Conflict Africa: The Role of Nonstate Policing” (Taylor and Francis, 2009). 

Full Audio File Size
34 MB
Full Audio Title
Bruce Baker - Full Interview

Peter F. Zaizay

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18
Critical Tasks
Country of Reform
Interviewers
Arthur Boutellis
Name
Peter F. Zaizay
Interviewee's Position
Deputy Minister for Administration and Acting Minister for National Security
Interviewee's Organization
Liberia
Language
English
Nationality of Interviewee
Liberian
Town/City
Monrovia
Country
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract
Peter F. Zaizay gives a detailed account of the post-war reforms and the restructuring of the Liberian National Police (LPN). He discusses how the 2003 Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement gave the United Nations the mandate to carry out the reforms. The U.N. Police were predominantly involved in deactivating the LNP and recruiting new officers after vetting, and were also engaged in training the police and  developing community policing forums. Zaizay recounts the challenges faced during the process: the large number of unskilled and unemployed youth who contributed to a rise in crime, gender-based violence, armed robbery within communities that lacked private security, the expected return of the huge refugee population abroad that posed a potential security threat, and the issue of whether or not the LNP would be accepted and respected by the locals after the U.N. left. Zaizay also talks about the government’s plans to integrate and amalgamate security institutions due to overlapping functions among organizations and the lack of sufficient funds to run them. He describes the history of politicization of the security service and the lack of established mechanisms for depoliticization. He emphasizes the need for an independent and professional civilian oversight board. As a result of the reforms, ethnic balance within the LNP was attained and a protection section for women and children was established. Zaizay stresses the importance of learning from other countries like Sierra Leone, Ghana and Uganda to find out how they have managed to transform their police services.
 
Profile

At the time of this interview, Peter F. Zaizay was Liberia's deputy minister for administration and the acting minister for national security. He began his career in private security in 1986. He worked with the Jascere Security Services. In 1992, Zaizay joined the Liberian National Police, and he worked in the Patrol Division, the Criminal Investigation Division and the Criminal Intelligence Unit. He also served as an assistant director of police for press and public affairs from 2004 to 2006. Later, he became the deputy director of police for training and then the commandant of the National Police Training Academy, a position he held from 2006 to 2007.

Full Audio File Size
39MB
Audio Subsections
Size
63MB
Title
Peter F. Zaizay Interview Part 2
Full Audio Title
Peter F. Zaizay Interview Part 1

Oliver Somasa

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Focus Area(s)
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17
Country of Reform
Interviewers
Arthur Boutellis
Name
Oliver Somasa
Interviewee's Position
Deputy Inspector-General of Police
Interviewee's Organization
Sierra Leone
Language
English
Nationality of Interviewee
Sierra Leonean
Town/City
Freetown
Country
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract
Oliver Somasa gives an account of the police reforms in Sierra Leone.  The main priorities during the reform process were boosting the police’s crowd-control capacity; strengthening their ability to fight organized crime, drug-trafficking and money laundering; and developing airport and border authority to maximize tax revenues.  Somasa talks about police vetting, recruitment, rank restructuring due to lack of distinct functions across positions, and training. He highlights the role of capacity building in professionalizing the police.  International donors and organizations like the United Nations participated in providing the necessary working tools for the reforms.  Somasa describes the challenges raised by such outside organizations, including administrative bottlenecks and the shuffling of advisers that affected the continuity of operations.  Somasa also explains the establishment of Family Support Units, which increased the reporting of domestic crimes as people gained more confidence in the police.  In addition, he describes the department in charge of complaints, discipline, and internal investigation, which enabled the public to report complaints and to seek redress.  For the analysis of the implemented reforms, Somasa highlights the importance of the monitoring and evaluation department, the change-management board, and public-perception surveys that were conducted by independent bodies. 
Profile
At the time of this interview, Oliver Somasa was the deputy inspector-general of police in Sierra Leone.  He joined the Sierra Leone Police in 1987 as an officer cadet.   He later underwent training in drug-enforcement analysis in Vienna and on returning, he became the head of the anti-narcotics squad in the Criminal Investigation Department. 
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Audio file not available.

Tobias Flessenkemper

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3
Critical Tasks
Country of Reform
Interviewers
Larisa Jasarevic
Name
Tobias Flessenkemper
Interviewee's Position
Chief, European Union Coordination Office
Interviewee's Organization
EU Police Mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina
Language
English
Town/City
Sarajevo
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract

Tobias Flessenkemper discusses the European Union Police Mission’s strategies and priorities in Bosnia-Herzegovina. He argues the command structure in the Bosnia police, which included a minister of the interior in each canton assuming administrative and executive roles that typically fall to police commissioners, overly politicized the Bosnia police in the levels of upper management. He considers politicization a major obstacle to police reform that was manifested differently in Bosnia’s two entities. Whereas in the cantons in the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, encroachment by ministers of the interior on the traditional roles of police commissioners created one type of politicization, in the Republika Srpska, police were hesitant to investigate cases involving politicians or wealthy individuals. Still, he points out that the police were one of the most trusted institutions in Bosnia, which he credits to their visibility and roots in the communities in which they served. Finally, he posits that the effectiveness of the police was subverted somewhat by Bosnia’s weak judicial system and lack of prisons.     

Profile

At the time of this interview, Tobias Flessenkemper was serving as chief of the European Union Coordination Office as part of the European Union Police Mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina. He previously worked in international policing for the European Union PROXIMA mission in Macedonia. Before working in international policing, Flessenkemper worked in Brussels in the non-governmental sector in the field of education, democracy building and human rights. His background was in political science and management. 

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63 MB
Full Audio Title
Tobias Flessenkemper - Full Interview

Garry Horlacher

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8
Critical Tasks
Country of Reform
Interviewers
Arthur Boutellis
Name
Garry Horlacher
Interviewee's Position
Security Sector Reform Coordinator
Interviewee's Organization
U.K. Department for International Development
Language
English
Nationality of Interviewee
British
Place (Building/Street)
State House
Town/City
Freetown
Country
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract
Garry Horlacher discusses police reform in Sierra Leone under the auspices of the U.K. Department for International Development and the United Nations. He identifies corrupt and inconsistent recruitment processes and low salaries for undermining the integrity of the Sierra Leone Police, and he emphasizes the need for improved funding and logistics. He discusses steps taken to address these issues, including managing the size of the police force and consistent, centralized recruitment practices. Horlacher also speaks about training and organization of the police force, and emphasizes the importance of coordination mechanisms between departments and agencies. He also discusses nascent performance and information management policies and community policing initiatives. Finally, Horlacher reflects on donor relations and U.N. policies, placing special emphasis on increased and consistent training of both U.N. and local police officers, and the coordination of priorities among donor organizations.
 
Profile

At the time of the interview, Garry Horlacher was security sector reform coordinator for the U.K. Department for International Development. Prior to that, he was part of the U.K. police for 30 years, retiring with the rank of chief superintendent.

Full Audio File Size
63MB
Full Audio Title
Garry Horlacher Interview

Ibrahim Idris

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5
Critical Tasks
Country of Reform
Interviewers
Arthur Boutellis
Name
Ibrahim Idris
Interviewee's Position
Police Operations Coordinator and Officer in Charge
Interviewee's Organization
United Nations Mission in Liberia
Language
English
Nationality of Interviewee
Nigerian
Town/City
Monrovia
Country
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract
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.
 
Profile

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.

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100MB
Full Audio Title
Idriss Ibriham Interview

Aaron Weah

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17
Country of Reform
Interviewers
Arthur Boutellis
Name
Aaron Weah
Interviewee's Position
National Program Assistant
Interviewee's Organization
International Center for Transitional Justice
Language
English
Nationality of Interviewee
Liberian
Town/City
Monrovia
Country
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract
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. 
 
Profile

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. 

Full Audio File Size
50MB
Full Audio Title
Aaron Weah Interview

Knut Walter

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11
Country of Reform
Interviewers
Flor Hunt
Name
Knut Walter
Interviewee's Position
President
Interviewee's Organization
Accreditation Commission of El Salvador
Language
English
Nationality of Interviewee
El Salvadoran
Town/City
San Salvador
Country
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract

Knut Walter gives a sociological and historical account of the militarization of Salvadoran political life, even under civilian rule, culminating in the civil war.  He describes the peace accords and ensuing reforms as a process of demilitarization of the police and reassignment of the armed forces to a very limited national security role.  He praises the design of the National Civil Police and its commitment to training, high levels of education and curricular emphasis on human rights. Walter identifies a need to improve investigations, given the low national sentencing rates coupled with the highest homicide rates in Latin America.  However, he rejects the argument that the army was any more effective in containing violence in decades past through zero-tolerance policies.  He attributes the high homicide rates to structural causes that must be addressed, including widespread availability of weapons, ambiguous property rights and social vulnerability brought on by migration.  Walter then discusses the proliferation of private security firms in El Salvador as a result of the culture of violence during the war years and as a possible strategy for integration of ex-combatants into the work force, but he denies any conflict of spheres of competence with the National Civil Police.

Profile

At the time of this interview, Knut Walter was president of the Accreditation Commission of El Salvador.  He earned a doctorate in history and held academic posts at Jose Simeon Cañas Central American University for 23 years.  He was a fellow at the New York Social Science Research Council, and he served as director of graduate programs at the Latin American University of Social Sciences in Guatemala.

Full Audio File Size
51MB
Full Audio Title
Knut Walter Interview

Graham Muir

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6
Critical Tasks
Country of Reform
Interviewers
Arthur Boutellis
Name
Graham Muir
Interviewee's Position
Police Commissioner
Interviewee's Organization
United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti
Language
English
Nationality of Interviewee
Canadian
Town/City
Ottawa
Country
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract

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.

Profile

Graham Muir was the commissioner of the United Nations Police as part of the U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti from 2005 to 2006.  At the time of the interview, he had served 32 years in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.  Prior to his service in Haiti, Muir served as the director of general learning and development for the RCMP.  He first became involved in international police work in 1993 as a part of the U.N. Protection Force in the former Yugoslavia.  Between 1993 and 2005 Muir was heavily involved with the training of RCMP members for U.N. police service.  He also had been involved with the Pearson Peace Keeping Center for a number of years at the time of the interview.

 
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81 MB
Full Audio Title
Graham Muir - Full Interview

Shantnu Chandrawat

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1
Country of Reform
Interviewers
Arthur Boutellis
Name
Shantnu Chandrawat
Interviewee's Position
Acting Commander
Interviewee's Organization
United Nations Mission in Kosovo
Language
English
Nationality of Interviewee
Indian
Place (Building/Street)
Mitrovica Regional Headquarters
Town/City
Kosovo
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract

Shantnu Chandrawat, acting commander of UNMIK (United Nations Mission in Kosovo) police in the Mitrovica region, discusses the progress of efforts to create an effective indigenous police force in Kosovo. Chandrawat, who had also served with an earlier UNMIK mission in Kosovo in 2001-2002, explains that during that first mission much of the crime he saw “related to the ethnic threat.” Now, those crimes have decreased, and crimes related to narcotics, smuggling, theft, and personal violence have increased. The police force itself has also changed substantially. At the time of Chandrawat’s first mission, UNMIK police carried out all policing duties; the local police forces were “under training and under probation.” Since that time, the KPS (Kosovo Police Service) has hired new officers of diverse ethnicities, integrated them effectively into the force, and implemented new training procedures involving both academy study and field unit rotations designed to develop specialized skills in such areas as field investigations, patrolling, forensics, and community policing. Chandrawat advises that these changes have been very productive, and that the KPS now functions effectively as an independent force with monitoring and oversight by UNMIK. He identifies the main challenges now facing the KPS as a lack of physical resources, especially vehicles; the need to improve transparency of the promotion system, and the need to increase salaries and improve salary payment practices.    

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

Profile

At the time of the interview, Chandrawat was deputy regional commander of UNMIK (United Nations Mission in Kosovo) police in Mitrovica, and Acting Regional Commander for that region. He joined the State Police in India in 1990, serving as a station commander and a subdivision police officer; he was promoted to Deputy Superintendent of Police in 1997 and achieved another promotion thereafter. He participated in a United Nations mission in Kosovo in 2001-2002, serving as station commander of the Vitina station in Gjilani/Gnjilane region. In 2007, he returned to Kosovo for a second mission; for the two months prior to the interview, he had been deputy regional commander, Operations, for the Mitrovica region.

Full Audio File Size
46 MB
Full Audio Title
Shantnu Chandrawat Interview