Martin Schönteich, a senior legal officer with the Open Society Justice Initiative, discusses police reform in post-apartheid South Africa. He discusses some of the challenges of the integration and amalgamation of new and old police forces, including in ensuring that the recruitment process was perceived as fair, integrating new forces despite limited retirement of older forces, and the challenges that literacy and resource constraints posed to effectively recruiting and training new forces. He goes on to discuss how South Africa addressed a number of challenges in building its new police agency. Some strategies employed included: increasing pay to attract more and better recruits, implementing new information management systems, and bringing in private consulting agencies to develop internal management structures. Schönteich proceeds to discuss the possibility of greater collaboration between the police and private non-state security actors. He concludes by noting that in countries in transition, developing “sound and effective” institutions takes time. Countries may face an initial increase in crime until institutional reforms are effectively implemented.  

Rajiv Bora discusses some of the major issues and challenges the Assam government faced in terms of law and order, counterinsurgency, and illegal immigration. The Indian state has confronted demographic pressures stemming from the migration of people from what is now Bangladesh. The state has also witnessed several insurgencies, including the United Front for the Liberation of Asom and the Bodo minority. Bora describes his role in monitoring and implementing ceasefire agreements with these groups. He talks about government decentralization efforts as well as steps to secure the India-Bangladesh border. These efforts included constructing a border fence, increasing the number of border outposts, establishing tribunals for foreigners, and creating a national registry of citizens. Bora also outlines the objectives and outcomes of the recently implemented Police Act and the institutional steps taken to reduce police excesses. He describes several tribal and communal conflicts and how the government responded. He also highlights the debate about the effectiveness of offering rehabilitation packages for extremists who have surrendered.

Case Study: Promoting Peace Through Development: Assam State, India, 2001-2009

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.    

Iver Frigaard describes how criminal networks developed in Kosovo in the absence of effective law enforcement activity. He discusses his reasons for objecting to the decision to drop the word Service from the official name of the Kosovo Police Service. He describes the police force as functional and says police had earned the respect of the population despite being deficient in certain skills. He discusses the problems of low salaries, corruption, political influence, the process of recruitment and vetting, and the transfer of power and responsibilities from the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo to the Kosovo Police. He extensively describes the issues of politicization and ethnic differences that affected the police force in Kosovo.

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

Faton Hamiti describes how the police station in Kosovo where he worked as a language assistant moved from being predominantly staffed by U.N. Police officers to having mostly Kosovo Police Service officers. He explains that the first members of UNPOL to arrive in 1999 were well accepted, but they later encountered difficulties due to political issues, lack of cooperation from the population and differences in police techniques among the international officers that were training the KPS. He explains in detail the complex process of transferring power and responsibility from the UNPOL to the KPS, and how the complicated status of Kosovo reflected on policing. He also gives many accounts of his experience while patrolling with the police.

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

General Reshat Maliqi discusses the main challenges faced by the police in Kosovo, including a boycott by Serbian officers due to the political situation. He gives details about the process of transition between the United Nations forces and the Kosovo Police, and the recruitment and promotion process. In his opinion, the Department for Community Affairs and the Community Policing Unit represented success stories in Kosovo. As the main priorities, he cites boosting investigative capacity through training, better equipping and training specialized units, and joining regional and international police organizations such as Europol and Interpol. He also believes that the Kosovo Police should take more responsibilities and rely less on the international community.

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