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| NEWS > 01 September 2007 |
Other related articles:
Ethics member wants probe of a
A member of Galveston’s ethics commission, Don Ciaccio, is asking police and city officials for a full investigation into the October 2004 arrest of a former health club owner.
Last week, a 122nd State District Court jury acquitted Ryan Sullivan, 28, of assault of a peace officer.
Police officers testified that Sullivan had slammed officer Joshua Allred against a nightclub wall and choked him. Allred said the encounter started with Sullivan’s angry refusal when Allred asked him to leave.
However, Sullivan testified that Allred yelled in his ear and grabbed him ... Read more
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 Article sourced from
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Daily Times - Lahore,Pakistan
01 September 2007
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
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Afghanistan instability to wor
Insecurity will worsen in insurgency-ridden Afghanistan, and democracy can fail if police are not reformed and depoliticised, according to an International Crisis Group report.
The report examines the worsening violence in the country, whose police were overlooked in the early stages of the international intervention in favour of building the army.
President Karzai’s government still lacks political will to tackle a culture of impunity and end political interference in appointments and operations, it observes.
Today police often are a source of fear, rather than community protection, the report says and recommends that instead of increasing coercive power and force size with poorly trained recruits, the Afghanistan government and its partners need to focus on increased accountability, ethnic representation and professionalism.
“Rather than acting as a service to citizens, the police operate more as a coercive tool of the governing elites,” says Joanna Nathan, International Crisis Group’s Senior Analyst on Afghanistan. “Rooting out corruption and ensuring operational autonomy – with oversight – are critical to Afghanistan’s security”.
The report observes that although the Afghan National Police (ANP) has made some progress since the 2001 Taliban fall, but return on invested human and financial capital is modest.
Conflicting visions of police reform also undermine progress in developing the police. The main motivation of foreign capitals has been to quash the insurgency, which has led to an understandable but short-sighted emphasis on quantity over quality and blurred the distinction between the military and the police, it observes.
Kabul and its partners need to acknowledge that different security arms of the state have different roles; building a legitimate, accountable, police institution must be seen as part of the wider process of democratisation, rather than simply a short-term security task, it recommends.
It says that professionalising the service through pay and rank reform is an uphill battle for the government and that the challenges of a growing insurgency are pushing quick fixes to the fore. Institution building is further hampered by problems associated with the ever-expanding illegal drugs trade.
The reform process should include appointment of a police commissioner with operational autonomy and civilian review bodies. Donor countries must commit to the International Police Coordination Board (IPCB) to develop and implement a strategy that includes conditioning funding on measurable progress.
The report recommends that a national-level police liaison board, with representatives of civil society, including academics, lawyers and human rights activists, including meaningful female representation, should for formed to advise the government on community needs. It also calls for a reinforced police internal affairs department. All senior police officials should declare their wealth and income, and submit to random audits of their tax declarations by the internal affairs department, it says.
The report also quotes a 1985 Police Committee review in Pakistan which found that the “symbiotic relationship and nexus between police and the executive was a major cause of serious police misconduct”.
Help raise police prestige and morale by visiting those wounded and families of those killed in the line of duty and publicly recognising acts of bravery, the report recommends to the president’s office.
“There will be real security in Afghanistan only when people trust the police,” says South Asia Project Director Samina Ahmed. “That trust can only be fostered if the police enforce – and abide by – the rule of law”.
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