How should the problems associated with reforming the police in post-conflict situations be addressed? What alternatives are there to state-policing? This article from the Journal of Humanitarian Assistance presents lessons from post-conflict policing in Uganda. Uganda’s experience with facilitating local community policing provides a positive lesson for post-conflict situations. Governments must respond to the reality of multiple-choice policing and consider how it can contribute to the provision of security.
Uganda’s post-conflict experience demonstrates that effective and nationwide local policing need not be resource intensive or centrally organised. In Uganda local councils (LCs) have responsibility for law and order, providing law enforcement through the local administrative police (LAP) and justice through LC courts. The LC system has successfully provided law and order in both rural and urban communities, offering an effective and legitimate policing structure. On the other hand, Uganda’s experience also provides some negative lessons. Local volunteers may be unable to deal with organised crime, terrorism and rebel activity and the government has adopted a militarised response to such activities.
Governments in post-conflict situations should consider how citizens can be mobilised in an acceptable way to play a role in keeping law and order. Instead of insisting that policing must be a state monopoly, the Government of Uganda has sought security partners who will work within the law. Examples of citizen-self-policing include the following:
- Since the formation of the Katwe Crime Prevention Panel in 1993, 30,000 local volunteers have received training in crime prevention. According to the Katwe police, the ‘crime preventers’ have improved the public’s perception of the police.
- The Kawempe Crime Prevention Panel uses an approach to crime prevention based on work associations. Employment groups were sensitised regarding crime matters affecting their own interests, before being offered crime prevention training.
- The Matugga Crime Prevention Panel has 300 members, who see their primary function as assisting the police and LCs in preventing crime. The Matugga panel demonstrates the potential of Crime Prevention Panels in rural districts.
- The Uganda Taxi Operators and Drivers Association is the principal authority for managing and policing taxis nationwide. It has 100 traffic wardens, enforces traffic regulations amongst taxi drivers and directs traffic in rush-hour congestion.
- Stallholders at Matugga village market have formed an association, with an elected committee which is the policing agency of the market. It acts as arbitrator in conflicts, can impose sanctions such as fines, and employs a guard at night.
Policing as it is experienced in Uganda is a complex pattern of overlapping agencies. Focussing on state policing for post-conflict situations is therefore ill-conceived. Even if a state police monopoly were achievable, it could not provide sufficient security and order. It should be assumed that multiple-choice policing will be the norm. In responding to multiple-choice policing, governments and donors should consider:
- The contribution each group can make to security and to appropriate restorative and punitive responses to abuses.
- Whether the relationships between different security providers and policing groups are cooperative or competitive
- How to define clearly and set the parameters of the desired relationship between the different policing structures.
- How government can work with other policing groups to ensure that they serve society and do not become too independent and self-serving.
