AREU
07/25/2007
By
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The resurgence of the Taliban since 2005 has led to a belated recognition by the international community of the importance of an effective police force in Afghanistan . As a result, 2007 is likely to see more money committed to police reform than the previous five years combined. According to a new report from the Kabul-based Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, however, there is a risk that this money will be wasted.

The report, titled "Cops or Robbers? The Struggle to Reform the Afghan National Police", shows that despite some notable achievements, the overall result of police reform efforts to date has been disappointing. Many Afghans still perceive the police to be part of the security problem rather than part of the solution. The report's author, Andrew Wilder, argues that if police reform is to succeed in Afghanistan , the Afghan government and its international partners will need to address five key issues:

1 Develop a shared vision of the role of the police and a shared strategy on how to achieve that vision. The current competing visions within the international community of the Afghan police as either a civilian law and order force or as a security force with a major counter-insurgency role are seriously undermining reform efforts.

2 Develop and implement a comprehensive rule of law strategy that recognises that reform of the police sector will not succeed without reform of the judicial sector.

3 Make donor assistance more conditional on comprehensive reform of the Ministry of Interior. Police reform efforts will have little positive impact if the structure within which the police operate is not reformed.

4 Prioritise quality of police over quantity and avoid "quick fix" solutions to increase the size of the police force. While too few police may be a problem in some areas, a more serious problem is that the police that are present may be corrupt and ineffective.

5 Prioritise greater fiscal sustainability of the security sector. The establishment of security sector institutions that Afghanistan will not have the resources to independently sustain anytime in the foreseeable future is likely to generate political instability and insecurity once international assistance levels inevitably decline.

According to Wilder, "It is troubling that these issues are all very self-evident, and for the most part have been widely recognised as serious problems for several years. Continuing to ignore them will result in more resources being wasted on reform efforts at a time when progress is urgently needed in transforming the police into a force that is known for promoting the rule of law."

Afghanistan is unlikely to ever again have the levels of international attention and resources devoted to reforming the police that it has today. It is therefore important to learn from past successes and failures and ensure the development of a police force that will operate as "cops" rather than "robbers".

"Cops or Robbers? The Struggle to Reform the Afghan National Police" is available for download at www.areu.org.af. Hard copies, as well as Dari and Pashto translations, will soon be available free of charge from AREU's office.

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