Police in Africa

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Democratic Transitions ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
Self Perceptions ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Everyday Practices ◽  
Police Forces

State police forces in Africa are a curiously neglected subject of study, even within the framework of security issues and African states. This book brings together criminologists, anthropologists, sociologists, historians, political scientists and others who have engaged with police forces across the continent and the publics with whom they interact to provide street-level perspectives from below and inside Africa’s police forces. The contributors consider historical trajectories and particular configurations of police power within wider political systems, then examine the ‘inside view’ of police forces as state institutions – the challenges, preoccupations, professional ethics and self-perceptions of police officers – and finally look at how African police officers go about their work in terms of everyday practices and engagements with the public.The studies span the continent, from South Africa to Sierra Leone, and illustrate similarities and differences in Anglophone, Francophone and Lusophone states, post-socialist, post-military and post-conflict contexts, and amid both centralizsation and devolution of policing powers, democratic transitions and new illiberal regimes, all the while keeping a strong ethnographic focus on police officers and their work.

Policing and the Legacies of Wartime State Predation: Evidence from a Survey and Field Experiment in Liberia

2021 ◽  
pp. 002200272110130
Author(s):  
Robert A. Blair ◽  
Benjamin S. Morse
Keyword(s):  
Field Experiment ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Positive Interactions ◽  
Security Sector Reform ◽  
Security Sector ◽  
Sector Reform ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
State Security ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Conflict Period

How does violence during civil war shape citizens’ willingness to trust and rely on state security providers in the post-conflict period? Can post-conflict security sector reform restore perceptions of state security forces among victims of wartime state predation? Using a survey and field experiment in Liberia, we show that rebel-perpetrated violence is strongly positively correlated with trust and reliance on the police after conflict is over, while state-perpetrated violence is not. Victims of wartime state predation are, however, more likely to update their priors about the police in response to positive interactions with newly reformed police officers. We also show that abuses committed by police officers in the post-conflict period are negatively correlated with citizens’ perceptions of the police, potentially counteracting the positive effects of security sector reform. We corroborate our quantitative findings with detailed qualitative observations of interactions between civilians and police officers in the field.

Legal pluralism in post-conflict Sierra Leone

2020 ◽  
Vol 61 ◽  
pp. 101819
Author(s):  
Pedro Naso ◽  
Erwin Bulte ◽  
Tim Swanson
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Legal Pluralism ◽  
Post Conflict

scholarly journals Where should police forces target their residential burglary reduction efforts? Using official victimisation data to predict burglary incidences at the neighbourhood level

Crime Science ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
James Hunter ◽  
Bethany Ward ◽  
Andromachi Tseloni ◽  
Ken Pease
Keyword(s):  
Police Officers ◽  
Crime Rates ◽  
Crime Reduction ◽  
Residential Burglary ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Neighbourhood Level ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Terrain Modelling ◽  
Modelling Approach ◽  
Police Forces

AbstractExpected crime rates that enable police forces to contrast recorded and anticipated spatial patterns of crime victimisation offer a valuable tool in evaluating the under-reporting of crime and inform/guide crime reduction initiatives. Prior to this study, police forces had no access to expected burglary maps at the neighbourhood level covering all parts of England and Wales. Drawing on analysis of the Crime Survey for England and Wales and employing a population terrain modelling approach, this paper utilises household and area characteristics to predict the mean residential burglary incidences per 1000 population across all neighbourhoods in England and Wales. The analysis identifies distinct differences in recorded and expected neighbourhood burglary incidences at the Output Area level, providing a catalyst for stimulating further reflection by police officers and crime analysts.

The Use of Section 136 of the Mental Health Act 1983 in a Family of Rural English Police Forces

2003 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil Greenberg ◽  
Niki Haines
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Disorder ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Hospital Admissions ◽  
Rural Setting ◽  
Mental Health Act ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Act Assessment ◽  
Police Forces

Section 136 of the Mental Health Act 1983 is used by police officers to detain persons who they feel might be suffering with mental disorder until a formal Mental Health Act assessment can be undertaken. Previous studies have shown that the outcomes of these assessments result in remarkably different rates of subsequent hospital admissions. Within a rural setting it has also been shown that the rate of use of Section 136 varies considerably. This study examines the use of Section 136 within a family of eight police forces that have been matched to ensure that they cover similar populations. The results show that there are considerable variations in the use of Section 136, with the Devon and Cornwall region using the section over two and a half times the mean for the group. Possible reasons for this discrepancy are discussed.

Building States to Build Peace? A Critical Analysis

2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 60-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles T. Call
Keyword(s):  
Critical Analysis ◽  
State Capacity ◽  
International Peace ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Strong State ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Post War ◽  
External Actors ◽  
State Functions

Agencies throughout the development, humanitarian, political and defence fields have recently endorsed the centrality of state institutions in post-war peacebuilding. But how can external actors go about peacebuilding in a way that reinforces effective and legitimate states without doing harm? Drawing on an International Peace Institute project, this article calls into question the assumption that peacebuilding can be boiled down to building state institutions. The article argues that the process of building states can actually undermine peace, postulating five tensions between peacebuilding and statebuilding even as it asserts that strong state institutions remain crucial for consolidating peace. Identifying three crucial state functions for peacebuilding, the article emphasises the complex interrelationships among legitimacy, state capacity and security in post-conflict societies.

scholarly journals The postcode lottery of safety: COVID-19 guidance and shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) for UK police officers

2021 ◽  
pp. 0032258X2110187
Author(s):  
Camilla De Camargo
Keyword(s):  
Police Officers ◽  
Personal Protective Equipment ◽  
Safety Information ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Interview Data ◽  
Government Agencies ◽  
Protective Equipment ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Working Practices ◽  
Police Forces

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant changes to police working practices involving the enhanced wearing of personal protective equipment (PPE), and ways of working inside and outside of police stations. The safety guidance released by the various government agencies has been conflicting, confusing and unhelpfully flexible, and there are significant discrepancies between some of the 43 forces of England and Wales. This article draws on primary interview data with 18 police officers from 11 UK police forces to explore the problems that officers faced in accessing appropriate PPE and the difficulties in obtaining and understanding accurate coronavirus health and safety information.

"A FESTIVAL OF BRIGANDS": IN SEARCH OF DEMOCRACY AND POLITICAL LEGITIMACY IN MALI

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce Whitehouse
Keyword(s):  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Warning Signs ◽  
Democratic Transitions ◽  
Weak State ◽  
Coup D'etat ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
System A ◽  
The Government ◽  
Systemic Corruption ◽  
Made In

Mali's coup d'état in March 2012 and the subsequent occupation of northern Mali by Islamist and separatist rebels took many observers by surprise. How could an erstwhile model of peaceful democratic transition collapse so swiftly? Why did so few ordinary Malians stand up in defence of their 20-year-old democracy? Combining accounts from Malian and foreign journalists with observations made in Bamako leading up to and during the dramatic events of early 2012, this article assesses the failures of Mali's pre-coup political system. A combination of the tenuous rule of law, weak state institutions, and perceptions of systemic corruption deeply eroded Malians' faith in their democracy. The junta that ousted Mali's elected president in March 2012, despite its international isolation, skillfully manipulated public frustrations with the government as well as local symbols and discourses pertaining to heroic leaders to gain support and legitimacy at home. The crisis in Mali was preceded by certain warning signs, some of which might be applied to gauge the health of democratic transitions elsewhere in Africa.

Investigating Corruption in the Afghan Police Force

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danny Singh
Keyword(s):  
Police Officers ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Police Force ◽  
Public Confidence ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Police Corruption ◽  
State Legitimacy ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Political Economic

This book provides a unique study on the lower ranks of the Afghan police force due to the lack of empirical evidence of what attributes to the causes, practices and consequences of corruption in this institution. The book is divided into a number of sections. It commences with an understanding of how corruption, and narrowly police corruption, impact on the police force, state legitimacy and the strategies in place to mitigate such problems as part of broader security and post-conflict reconstruction initiatives. The theoretical framework comprises political, economic and cultural drivers of police corruption by drawing on semi-structured interviews with elites and a survey and structured interview conducted with street-level police officers. The findings infer that weak oversight and low pay are causes of police corruption which intensify bribery and roadside extortion. The lack of professionalism, partly due to short and unclear training, and patronage are deemed as meanings of police corruption. In terms of motivation, there is no sense of pride in Afghan policing to fulfil a clear mandate. Moreover, non-meritocratic recruitment is prevalent which exacerbates local influences, loyalties and job buying in either high-drug cultivating or urban areas. To curb patronage, police officers are rotated to distant provinces but economic hardship is further increased when catering for large families with fewer breadwinners. The book concludes that the problems with police corruption and failure to combat it results in low public confidence and state illegitimacy which can support violent opposition groups to create further instability in war-torn societies.

Technical and vocational education and training and marginalised youths in post-conflict Sierra Leone: Trainees’ experiences and capacity to aspire

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 534-550
Author(s):  
Mitsuko Matsumoto
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Vocational Education ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Education And Training ◽  
Capabilities Approach ◽  
Vocational Education And Training ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Technical And Vocational Education ◽  
And Training ◽  
Capacity To Aspire

The article aims to build on current understandings of the experiences and aspirations of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) trainees in conflict-affected countries, focussing on the case study of Sierra Leone. Employing the capabilities approach pioneered by Amartya Sen, it casts light on the different benefits beyond employability which young people acquire through TVET. This includes the development of their ‘capacity to aspire’. At the same time, the article shows the poor conditions and social stigma that continue to surround TVET and the profession of ‘skilled man’ in the country of Sierra Leone. By doing so, the article shows the potential of capabilities approach and the concept of ‘capacity to aspire’ to more systematically look at the wider benefits of TVET to young people. It also reveals the simplistic nature of the international community’s expectations with regards to TVET’s role in post-conflict societies.

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