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| | | Title | TAMING ROGUE POLICE FORCES IN PEACEFUL AND POST CONFLICT SITUATIONS: Lessons from Liberia, Case Study 34 | | Author | ACBF | | Subject | Peace and Conflict Resolution | | Date of Publication | 2016034 | | Publisher | African Community of Practice on Management for Development result at the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) | | Number of Pages | 11 pages | | Language | English | | Geographical Coverage | Liberia | | Keywords | Peace Building - Liberia | | Abstract | With guns and powers to arrest, detain and control movement of people, trucks and goods, police officers become easily prone to abuse of power. In African countries, the not so rewarding terms of service for police tempt them to seek gratification for services rendered or for refraining from rendering services due to the state. In the absence of strong and effective institutions of good governance and accountability, some police officers are likely to get involved in corrupt transactions even in times of peace. In times of conflict their behaviour is likely to go beyond transactional corruption if institutions of governance become weakened. They may tend to engage in anti-social behaviour through activities that are utterly unjust and in violation of citizens’ dignity and rights or completely subversive and inconsistent with the expected behaviour of public officials within established norms. This type of corruption incapacitates legitimate authorities from protecting citizens and subverts systems of governance making them wholly corrupt. Many cities both in the developed and developing countries have gone through waves of such subversive behaviour arising out of the deterioration of police services. Brazil, India, Mexico Northern Ireland and Tanzania for example, have experienced this decay in times of peace and have found it an uphill struggle to bring their police forces back on track. Liberia and Sierra Leone have experienced the decay of their police systems during war times. This paper focuses on efforts made by the United Nations (UN), the Liberian Government and its development partners to turn what had become a rogue police force into a professional, ethical and functional body after the war. Most important, the paper presents how the police force was gravitated away from human rights violations characterized by rape, assault and child abuse, to become once again, a dependable and respectable force in the country. The key message is that in times of peace or war, it is necessary to undertake capacity building reforms focusing on human security. | | Copyright Holder | African Community of Practice (AfCoP) | | Copyright URL | http://www.acbf-pact.org | | Filesize | 659878 MB | | File Format | PDF | | [ View / download original document ] |
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