Democratizing the Police Abroad: What To Do and How To Do It

• NCJ Number: 188742
• Date Published: June 2001
• Author(s): David H. Bayley
• Length: 135 pages
• Publication Series: NIJ Research Report
• Grant Number(s): 1999-IJ-CX-0055
• Agencies: NIJ
• Publication Type: Issue Overview

Annotation

This report examines the process of changing police organizations so as to support democracy.

Abstract

The report is based on studies of efforts to change police practices in the developed democracies, especially in the United States; accounts of experiences with foreign assistance to police abroad under both bilateral and multilateral auspices; and accounts of the actions of nongovernmental human rights organizations to rectify police abuses. Reforms considered most important in developing a police force that supports democracy are creation of a responsive public-service orientation, adherence to the rule of law, protection of human rights, and transparency with respect to the activities of the police agency and the people within it. Observations about the process of democratic police reform were deemed to be "lessons" if they were generally agreed upon, were based on real-world experience, and pertained to the goal of democratic development. The lessons are organized as: (1) generic reform in any police organization; (2) police reform abroad; (3) police reform in peacekeeping; and (4) managing police reform abroad. The report contains 87 lessons and corollaries implied by the lessons. Notes, bibliography