Editorial
Police reform time-frame
Put the building blocks in place urgently
POLICE reform has been one agenda we have been hammering away at whenever the occasion arose. We attach a good deal of urgency to the matter. For, we believe, like most people, that without a corruption-free, people-friendly, human rights-sensitive and thoroughly professional police force, neither social peace and order nor economic development can be truly achieved.
That's why the news of the police reform programme supported by the UNDP and the UK Department of International Development having been extended for another five years has caught our attention. The programme beginning from 2005 and ending in September, 2009 has stepped into the second phase spanning another five years. We are not aware of what has been achieved by way of reform in the first phase and how instrumental has it proved to be in improving the overall performance of the force, but its extension into the second phase may be regarded as a reflection of a positive view taken by the UNDP of the programme.
The second phase is a substantive one comprising assistance to the government in tackling the law and order and human rights situation, in building trust with the community through community policing, strengthening oversight and accountability of the police and boosting police professionalism in the areas of investigations, training and gender sensitivity.
We can understand that transition of a colonial-style police force 'to democratic policing for enhancing human security' will take its time. But given the felt-urgency for police reform all around whatever needs to be done by the government should start being put in place before long.
The first order of priority ought to be to respond to the pivotal necessity for amending the Police Act of 1861. Unless an updated legal framework attuned to the contemporary needs is in place the move for reform cannot basically take off. Plenty of recommendations from think-tanks, civil society and expert groups are available specifying the lines along which the Act should be amended. The government may hold further consultations with the stakeholders. And since it is a matter for legislation MPs on both sides should be associated with the process. Nothing like the reform having a bipartisan stamp.
Meanwhile, the government could take the reform agenda forward by ensuring that its political will is fully behind it and that there is scrupulous avoidance of politicisation.
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