Description
State security institutions such as the police are some of the most important areas of state activity. In fragile environments such as post-conflict or semi-authoritarian states, the reform of the security sector is a major endeavour, and often part of larger peacebuilding or democratisation efforts of the government as well as international donors. Yet, particularly in fragile environments, state security institutions often do not or only marginally engage in these tasks, and are at times not trusted or even feared by the population. Scholarship and police realm alike focus on the possibility of building trust and assume that if it cannot be built it is considered to be a ‘failure’. What it does not do much is discuss or assess potential alternatives for trust. But how far can and should citizen-state relations be improved in situations where the police engage in authoritarian or abusive behaviour? Is increased trust in police even desirable, or does it endanger security and life for individuals and communities? And what are alternatives to trust-building in post-conflict societies? This paper engages with these critical questions on a number of highly contentious cases of police reform, including the DR Congo and Afghanistan.
