Assessing the Police

[davidbfpo]

Thanks to an Indian "lurker" there is a book, which includes a chapter 'The Role of Police in Counterinsurgency Operations in Iraq, 2003–6' by Matt Sherman and the Abstract says:

Policing is a skilled and complex task that lies at the nexus of the security sector and the criminal justice system. Police are likely to be the face government presents to the population. They live and interact in the community within which they operate, are rarely unit-based, and have significantly different objectives and accountability structures than their military counterparts. This chapter highlights the challenges to the development of the Iraqi Police Services (IPS) during 2003–2006, as well as the Service’s failures and successes. Particular attention is paid to the politics underlying security at local and national levels, as well as mismatched Coalition and donor priorities (e.g. emphasizing quantity vs. quality), the comparatively lengthy and complex process of police and criminal justice sector development, the effect of strong leadership, the correlation between the growth of civil society and policing, and the role of host nation military support for policing.

The book is 'Policing Insurgencies: Cops as Counterinsurgents'. Edited by C. Christine Fair and Sumit Ganguly. Published by OUP (India) in 2013. See: http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/vie...4883-chapter-9

Matt Sherman was a US political adviser in Iraq 2003-2006, he spoke at a number of events and is now a SCI consultant.

[Red Rat]

The book is 'Policing Insurgencies: Cops as Counterinsurgents'. Edited by C. Christine Fair and Sumit Ganguly. Published by OUP (India) in 2013. See: http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/vie...4883-chapter-9

Indeed that book is sitting on my shelves beside my desk, as yet unopened, although the book The Police In War is now well thumbed.

[davidbfpo]

Thanks to a pointer I have found a couple of historical papers on the Uk's earlier commitment to assisting the Iraqi police:

1) An academic / practitioner's article (behind a pay wall) 'The Lessons of Policing in Iraq—a Personal Perspective': http://policing.oxfordjournals.org/c.../1/102.extract

This refers to a published paper by 'HMG's Strategic Task Force into international police assistance', I wonder if the net paper is part of that. It certainly is not readily found on the web.

2) From 2010 a former diplomat's papers:http://www.iraqinquiry.org.uk/media/...-statement.pdf

3) A former Chief Constable's 2010 paper: http://www.iraqinquiry.org.uk/media/...ment-final.pdf

[davidbfpo]

Via a "lurker" a viewpoint from someone at the "sharp end" conducting policing in a COIN environment:

I presume the requirement is for an officer attached to a unit in Iraq to assess the Policing Units, their officers and then presumably help them upgrade the skills. If it is so, and presuming that this is to be done in a insurgency prone area I would have following thoughts/ points for consideration:

1) Mission, scope, and accountability mechanism relevant for the unit: Territorial Law Enforcement Unit of the police (akin to a Police Station) will have a mission quite different from from Armed Police Unit responsible for a territory (Armed Outpost) for general area domination. Similarly a reserve police unit responsible for maintaining the logistics or installation security would have different mission and scope. According to their responsibilities the accountability of men and officers could be determined. I have not included pure intelligence unit of the police in this discussion.


2) As I understand, the policing in a insurgency area needs the following Knowledge/Skills/ competencies for all those involved:

- General knowledge of the area, people, customs, history
- Specific knowledge about the vulnerable spots, areas, timings
- Facility of local language
- Certain level of physical fitness, mental capacities
- Knowledge about the weapons prevalent with the force and the enemy
- Skills in handling of weapons and equipment including marksmanship and combat shooting
- Knowledge of Tactics used by the enemy, tactics of the Counter Insurgent, general knowledge about the Policy and Strategy of the higher command

In addition I suppose the leader should have following capacity:
- Ability to relate to team members
- Ability to plan and execute tasks
- Ability to learn on the job, and carry the learning to the force through briefing and training
- Talent spotting ability to identify competent deputies, trainers, niche skills
- Ability to promote, project and sustain team work
- Co-ordinate with other units to achieve unity of effort and inter-operability

Suitable measuring technique could be developed after ascertaining the Mission/Scope of the unit for which the exercise is to be conducted.

[davidbfpo]

From a "lurker" who is an international police trainer, not in the MENA:

So I would suggest that police performance could be focused around perhaps five or six key priorities with performance measures designed to reflect operating success under these headings. First and foremost should probably be compliance with national and international human rights standards.

A suggested list might look something like this:

1. Compliance with national and international standards in human rights. (Measures could be number of reports of excessive use of force, fatalities or injuries caused, complaints of human rights abuses received, complaints received from minority communities, NGOs, third sector organisations or international monitors.)
2. Impact on public safety and community security (Measures could include indicators of normal civic life such as number of shops and stalls open, people abroad in daylight hours and at night, number of pupils in school, ability of local government and infrastructure to function etc, as well as more obvious indicators such as number of murders, terrorist attacks, kidnappings, public protests and so on.)
3. Visibility in local communities (Measures to include number of visible police patrols (foot and mobile), number of police/public encounters, number of uniformed officers present on the street over a 24hr period, number of uniformed officers available for immediate deployment, response times to emergency calls or critical incidents.)
4. Public confidence (Measures to include, number of reports made to police, general measures of public confidence to be measured by public attitude surveys and questionnaires.)
5. Professional standards (Number of officers arrested, disciplined or dismissed each month, allegations of bribery or corruption, number of complaints against the police, number of women in the police and women in supervisory or command positions. Number of incidents resolved or dealt with effectively per month.)

I'm guessing, largely from a position of ignorance admittedly, that more conventional measures of police performance such as number of crimes recorded, detections and clear-ups are not really appropriate in an environment where basic security is still elusive.