MISSING PIECES - Inter-Parliamentary Union

THEME 7
ACCOUNTABLE POLICING
If the cycle of violence is also fuelled by a sense that the population is not
getting a fair deal from the justice and security sector, then it appears
essential to ensure that the justice sector is fair and impartial, and that the
security sector is accountable to the people it has to serve. Police and other
security actors should be responsive to the needs and preoccupations of
the community, they should operate in accordance with law and be held
accountable for breaches, and they should ultimately be subjected to the
control of democratic institutions.
The importance of subjecting all security actors to democratic control
has been recognised by the OSCE, which in 1994 promulgated a Code of
Conduct on Politico-Military Aspects of Security (OSCE Code of Conduct). 24
It provides that:
[e]ach participating State will at all times provide for and maintain effective guidance
to and control of its military, paramilitary and security forces by constitutionally
established authorities vested with democratic legitimacy. Each participating State
will provide controls to ensure that such authorities fulfil their constitutional and
legal responsibilities. 25
Thought should also be given as to the ministry in which the different
justice and security actors are housed. In Afghanistan, where the police
come under the responsibility of the Ministry of Interior, oversight of
prisons was subsequently moved from the Ministry of Interior to the Ministry
of Justice, in order to ensure that the authority overseeing arrests was
different from the one responsible for detention. 26
Regarding police–community relations, there are a few examples of
reform, such as the Chicago Alternative Policing Project, that suggest a
new form of service provision, that is more open and balances a role for
local communities. As the police invite co-operation from their ‘clients’
in resolving security issues, confidence can be raised and tensions quelled.
Such a bottom-up approach requires appraisal of the social, physical, and
economic situation in discrete neighbourhoods; the identification of risks;
and the willingness to do something about them.
Such changes to policing style can alter levels of insecurity and strengthen
human security and rights, provided the state is willing and able to support
the reforms. There was an attempt to introduce a form of community
policing in the favelas of Brazil, but after a promising trial, no real attempt
was made to develop it further. 27
129