CIAO DATE: 11/2010
October 2010
Danish Institute for International Studies
In many third world countries, 'community policing' has become a significant element of efforts to improve public safety in poor rural and urban areas. Based on empirical studies in Mozambique, Project Researcher Helene Maria Kyed shows that community policing can contribute to reduce crime, but does not necessarily change everyday policing practices. Community policing members are either drawn into doing the 'dirty work' by the state police, or on their own mimic problematic state police practices, such as torture and corruption. Moreover, partnerships between state and non-state policing actors coexist with new forms of competition between the same actors, who vie for power, prestige and resources, often in an illicit manner. Helene Kyed argues that policies on community policing need to take serious the kind of competition over power that prevails in everyday policing, and find new ways of ensuring a broader representation of local citizens in their models.
Resource link: The Contested Role of Community Policing: 'New' non-state actors in the plural legal landscape of Mozambique [PDF] - 210K