The Pros And Cons Of Civilian Police Contractors
The United Nations has its own self-made problems recruiting police contractors. Latham says United Nations must better match attitudes and skills to tasks. To be able to do this, more standardized training is necessary. Training, however, takes time that current United Nations recruitment methods for United Nations police officers do not allow for. After the United Nations issues its request for officers, the member state must review the application and make sure it agrees with the mandate. Then it must identify individuals who can leave their current assignments to serve in the United Nations mission. Those individuals must have time to prepare themselves and brush up on skills such as first aid and languages. The United Nations has
…show more content…
a brief cultural and mission specific orientation for officers being deployed. In Bosnia, the orientation lasted only five days. Compounding the time shortage is the fact that member states typically send officers for short deployments. It is not unusual for United Nations police officers to spend up to half their stay just getting familiar with the country and environment. Pre-mission training further reduces the officers' time with the host nation police force (Latham, 2001).
Contractors can also more easily field the kind of forces most needed. These contracting companies can recruit from databanks of mostly retired police personnel and military (Lotte &Pauwels, 2010). This makes it easier for them to take on people with specific experience. A contracting company may specifically recruit retired military police, civil affairs officers, and Special Forces. Contracting businesses also employ personnel with particular skills in language or area expertise or particular experience-establishing order after a civil war. It 's hard for national military organizations to find those kinds of specific skills and experience and deploy them to a particular arena (Avant, 2007).It is still hard to recruit the perfect contractor for each and every mission.
Current methods of recruiting and training civilian police monitors have proved to be inadequate. Because few nations have a surplus of police officers, there is a shortage of officers to staff monitoring missions. Also, professional standards of police vary drastically throughout the world, resulting in unqualified officers' being sent on civilian police missions. Although Civpol was originally warranted because military personnel were not trained for day-to-day law enforcement activities, police are unable to stop massive civil unrest or to operate in warlike environments (Bates, 2014). Some police tasks are better accomplished by soldiers until the society becomes demilitarized. Police duties, especially in the initial post-conflict period, should focus on crime prevention and investigation, which will help local law enforcement agents gain the trust of the local population as well as restore law and order (Latham, 2001).
Latham says civilian police officers are deployed to encourage local police forces to return to the rule of law.
As its task is often to demilitarize and reform local law enforcement agencies, it is important that civilian police officers should not be used by the United Nations to augment its military forces. The civilian police officer’s contingent is not mandated or trained to be a rapid exit strategy for military forces (Latham, 2001). Civilian police officers are usually tasked only with ensuring compliance with international standards. Although civilian police officers will work to establish law and order, its presence must not discourage the military from performing its task of ensuring a secure environment in which the civilian components can work. In other words, in the absence of a peaceful local authority, the military must retain primary responsibility for overall security. This includes tasks such as the arrest of criminals and riot control in areas of conflict(Latham, 2001). However, detention and legal proceedings should be the responsibility of local officials. Legal proceedings should be the responsibility other international organizations monitoring the proceedings. This delineation of tasks will allow Civilian Police to concentrate on its mission of ensuring that local law enforcement officers carry out their duties with full respect for universally accepted human rights and criminal justice standards (Latham, 2001). Although Civpol has made significant contributions to establishing peace in many missions, United Nations police mandates outstrip the availability of officers. For example, the missions in East Timor, Sierra Leone, and Kosovo are currently staffed at sixty-eight percent, eighteen percent, and sixty-six percent of authorized capacity respectively. Thus, as long as United Nations civilian police officers operations remain dependent on men and women recruited from active police forces, there will be a shortage of officers
(Spearin, 2004). Civilian police officers' priority, is and will always remain the domestic policing needs of the home country. Every police officer removed from the street of any city or town is deleted from active engagement. In the military, this would be the equivalent of taking soldiers from the battlefield in the middle of an engagement and transferring them elsewhere. Our cities and towns are our battlefields, and police officers are our troops, and simply no personnel is not engaged. To transfer any personnel to a foreign duty is a diminution of effort (Latham, 2001, p. 192).
a brief cultural and mission specific orientation for officers being deployed. In Bosnia, the orientation lasted only five days. Compounding the time shortage is the fact that member states typically send officers for short deployments. It is not unusual for United Nations police officers to spend up to half their stay just getting familiar with the country and environment. Pre-mission training further reduces the officers' time with the host nation police force (Latham, 2001).
Contractors can also more easily field the kind of forces most needed. These contracting companies can recruit from databanks of mostly retired police personnel and military (Lotte &Pauwels, 2010). This makes it easier for them to take on people with specific experience. A contracting company may specifically recruit retired military police, civil affairs officers, and Special Forces. Contracting businesses also employ personnel with particular skills in language or area expertise or particular experience-establishing order after a civil war. It 's hard for national military organizations to find those kinds of specific skills and experience and deploy them to a particular arena (Avant, 2007).It is still hard to recruit the perfect contractor for each and every mission.
Current methods of recruiting and training civilian police monitors have proved to be inadequate. Because few nations have a surplus of police officers, there is a shortage of officers to staff monitoring missions. Also, professional standards of police vary drastically throughout the world, resulting in unqualified officers' being sent on civilian police missions. Although Civpol was originally warranted because military personnel were not trained for day-to-day law enforcement activities, police are unable to stop massive civil unrest or to operate in warlike environments (Bates, 2014). Some police tasks are better accomplished by soldiers until the society becomes demilitarized. Police duties, especially in the initial post-conflict period, should focus on crime prevention and investigation, which will help local law enforcement agents gain the trust of the local population as well as restore law and order (Latham, 2001).
Latham says civilian police officers are deployed to encourage local police forces to return to the rule of law.
As its task is often to demilitarize and reform local law enforcement agencies, it is important that civilian police officers should not be used by the United Nations to augment its military forces. The civilian police officer’s contingent is not mandated or trained to be a rapid exit strategy for military forces (Latham, 2001). Civilian police officers are usually tasked only with ensuring compliance with international standards. Although civilian police officers will work to establish law and order, its presence must not discourage the military from performing its task of ensuring a secure environment in which the civilian components can work. In other words, in the absence of a peaceful local authority, the military must retain primary responsibility for overall security. This includes tasks such as the arrest of criminals and riot control in areas of conflict(Latham, 2001). However, detention and legal proceedings should be the responsibility of local officials. Legal proceedings should be the responsibility other international organizations monitoring the proceedings. This delineation of tasks will allow Civilian Police to concentrate on its mission of ensuring that local law enforcement officers carry out their duties with full respect for universally accepted human rights and criminal justice standards (Latham, 2001). Although Civpol has made significant contributions to establishing peace in many missions, United Nations police mandates outstrip the availability of officers. For example, the missions in East Timor, Sierra Leone, and Kosovo are currently staffed at sixty-eight percent, eighteen percent, and sixty-six percent of authorized capacity respectively. Thus, as long as United Nations civilian police officers operations remain dependent on men and women recruited from active police forces, there will be a shortage of officers
(Spearin, 2004). Civilian police officers' priority, is and will always remain the domestic policing needs of the home country. Every police officer removed from the street of any city or town is deleted from active engagement. In the military, this would be the equivalent of taking soldiers from the battlefield in the middle of an engagement and transferring them elsewhere. Our cities and towns are our battlefields, and police officers are our troops, and simply no personnel is not engaged. To transfer any personnel to a foreign duty is a diminution of effort (Latham, 2001, p. 192).