The Contextual Limits of Police Reform

Abstract

In this chapter we outline the patterns we found throughout our case studies that can help inform future policy and research activities. A key theme in our discussion is that police reform and SSR more generally cannot be divorced from the impact of neoliberal globalization that has profound implications for the relations between states, their levels of political and economic development, and in particular their ability to establish a political and legal system that is tolerant and respectful of democratic ideals both normatively and practically. Our case studies demonstrate that it is difficult to transform policing systems when there remain infrastructural blockages and obstacles elsewhere such as extremes of wealth and poverty (South Africa, Brazil, Trinidad and Tobago) a legacy of authoritarian rule (Turkey) a collapsed state infrastructure (Iraq, Afghanistan) or the lingering of ethnic schisms and spoiler violence in spite of a widely lauded peace process (Northern Ireland). In this sense we cannot emphasize enough how each of the seven countries examined are unique historically, economically, culturally, and politically — a fact that makes any attempt at promoting a single narrative of democratic police reform particularly difficult. This has implications for both conceptualizing police reform endeavours but also their success or failure. Certainly, in terms of actually ‘doing’ police reform it is still too often the case that one-size-fits-all strategies are applied to a wide variety of hugely different contexts.