Policing to Promote the Rule of Law and Protect the Population An Evidence-Based Approach (2022) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
Pages 1-9
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 1... ...
, provides foreign assistance and supports capacity building for criminal justice systems and police organizations in approximately 90 countries around the world. It has a mandate to "strengthen fragile states, support democratic transitions, and stabilize conflict-affected societies by helping partner countries develop effective and accountable criminal justice sector institutions and systems."1 With such a purpose, INL is part of a larger network of international and regional organizations, bilateral donors, international financial institutions, and civil society organizations that work in the broad area of police reform and capacity building in the security sector around the world.
|
From page 2... ...
When developing programs to assist with police reform, it is important to identify and make transparent the governance, labor, and political conditions that present barriers to sustained reform -- whether they be under-resourced police agencies, forms of political repression, or an overlap between police and political elites and organized crime. With additional information, such consideration can help illuminate where and when it is feasible to proceed with any promising interventions, where it is best not to proceed, and where it is feasible to proceed but only with a plan for evading or overcoming any obstacles.
|
From page 3... ...
As noted earlier, much existing knowledge from research focuses on the effects of policing approaches on crime prevention. However, a growing body of research also addresses evidence on such concerns as police efforts to improve relationships with the communities they serve; to improve trust and satisfaction in specific interactions with citizens; or to strengthen internal accountability mechanisms for rule-of-law policing.
|
From page 4... ...
The committee examined and compared two of the most comprehensive efforts: The one undertaken by the World Justice Project and the other by the Varieties of Democracies Project. The committee found a high level of correlation between these two indices, and it found a strong positive correlation between a commitment to ROL and a country's human rights score as well as its level of democracy.2 As such, the committee recognizes that future research can, in principle, assess whether police reforms can achieve outcomes with an impact on improving ROL.
|
From page 5... ...
Since a fundamental component of the rule of law is that the state be held accountable to the law, and since the state delegates considerable power to the police, police institutions have great responsibility to act in ways consistent with laws and international human rights norms and standards. Promoting the rule of law therefore requires laws and policies that establish clear limits to police authority and actions -- particularly regarding the use of force -- as well as mechanisms for meaningful oversight and accountability.
|
From page 6... ...
Internal governance that includes effective, independent investigative units within agencies may increase government and police legitimacy and foster public trust. Systematic evidence is available on internal governance structures, and it shows that police organizations with internal affairs or professional standards units that provide internal, independent checks and balances are better equipped to prevent corruption within the organization than those without cross-checks.
|
From page 7... ...
However, this depends on how these technologies are used in practice, the strength and supervision of implementation policies, and whether citizens and the police share similar expectations about those technologies. For example, bodyworn cameras may be effective in collecting data on police interactions and holding officers accountable to ROL and human rights standards.
|
From page 8... ...
This research and information-gathering infrastructure is important to pursue effectively two of the most promising evidence-based strategies: problem-oriented policing for protecting the public and community-oriented policing for cultivating dialogue and police legitimacy. Problem-oriented policing is a strategic approach to tackling patterns of crime, disorder, and even internal challenges in policing.3 Research evidence has indicated across a wide range of experiments that problem-oriented policing can be a promising strategy to reduce crime and disorder.
|
From page 9... ...
This body of research finds that while crime prevention or deterrence benefits are inconsistent, some community-oriented policing programs can improve citizen satisfaction with police services (although the impacts on perceptions of police legitimacy may be weaker)
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.