Description
The police are considered the most visible arm of the government, responsible for law enforcement and establishing security and order for citizen (Cao and Zhao 2005). Yet especially after violent conflict the police are often not trusted (anymore): during war and political conflict, formal and capable security institutions are often destroyed, and in some cases the police are even perpetrators of violence against civilians themselves. Previous research on individual post-conflict countries has found that unlawful behaviour toward citizens has a negative effect on trust in police, while inclusive and accessible services have a positive effect. However, these findings have not been tested on a large scale, comparative, and cross-area sample. Taking survey data from eleven African and nine Latin American post-conflict countries, we examine factors that determine trust in police in these countries. We find that across different post-conflict countries in both continents, unlawful behaviour toward citizens is a very strong predictor of a lack of trust in police. In addition, we also find that general trust and satisfaction in other democratic institutions is also strongly correlated with trust in the police. Interestingly, factors such as insecurity in the neighbourhood do only determine trust in police in Latin American post-conflict countries, but not in African post-conflict countries. Accessibility of police services was not significant across all countries. Our findings make an important contribution to existing research on police and police reform in post-conflict countries, and give important indications for practitioners of police reform.
