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11. Towards a Commonwealth law enforcement innovation framework

Author:
Genevieve Feely and John Coyne
Publication Date:
08-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Australian Strategic Policy Institute
Abstract:
In March 2019, ASPI, with the sponsorship of Oracle, coordinated the ASPI–Oracle Innovation Framework Workshop. The workshop brought together subject-matter experts from federal law enforcement agencies, academia and the private sector to explore the feasibility of a Commonwealth law enforcement innovation framework (CLEIF). This followed a 2018 research project that explored the current state of innovation in law enforcement.1 That research was based on a case study of innovation in Australia’s federal anti-money-laundering (AML) provisions. The research project was underpinned by three key questions: How can technology enhance the identification of money-laundering offences? How can law enforcement bring together technology and policy to ensure more agile AML decision-making? How can law enforcement agencies gain faster access to new AML technologies and capabilities? The research resulted in the publication of a Special Report, titled ‘I can see clearly now!’, which provided specific analysis of the key factors that support and restrict technological innovation in federal law enforcement AML efforts.2 The report’s central argument was that the current ecosystem for technological innovation in AML needs to be enhanced to engage with the dual challenge of disruptive technology and the integration of pockets of AML excellence into a holistic whole-of-government program. While the research was focused on technology and AML, it has broader application to law enforcement technological innovation. The research found little evidence that the organisational frameworks for enterprise or portfolio technological innovation in federal law enforcement are fully developed.3 The March 2019 workshop explored innovation themes in government and the corporate sector that had relevance to law enforcement. The results provide further input to policymakers as they formulate future directions for the agencies and their capabilities.
Topic:
Governance, Law Enforcement, Police, and Innovation
Political Geography:
Australia and Australia/Pacific

12. Ghana's Peacekeeping Efforts Abroad Have an Impact at Home: The Many Implications of UN Peacekeeping

Author:
Festus Aubyn, Kwesi Aning, Emma Birikorang, Fiifi Edu-Afful, Maya Mynster Christensen, and Peter Albrecht
Publication Date:
01-2019
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
The UN deploys thousands of peacekeepers in support of peace processes and state-building in countries and regions that are emerging from conflict. The example of Ghana shows that the impacts of these missions are not just felt in countries that host UN missions, but also in those that provide them with troops. Recommendations ■ The Ghanaian government should conduct a comprehensive assessment of the impacts of peacekeeping on the country’s security sector in order to inform its contributions to the UN in the future. ■ The Ghanaian army and police should continue to build on the lessons learned from deploying security personnel abroad and maintain their focus on consolidating the democratic and accountable foundations of the security sector. ■ The UN should build a stronger understanding of how countries that contribute to peace- keeping missions are affected politically, financially and in respect of their security by making these contributions.
Topic:
Security, Defense Policy, Democratization, Development, Non State Actors, Fragile States, Violence, Peace, Police, and Justice
Political Geography:
Africa and Ghana

13. https://www.sandiego.edu/peace/images/ipj/18_Kroc_KrocInsight_PDF_FINAL%202.pdf

Author:
Daniel Orth
Publication Date:
01-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace Justice, University of San Diego
Abstract:
fforts to improve public safety that involve religious leaders without a strong standing in the community are destined to fail. The question that the Kroc IPJ’s Building Trust Partnership has been wrestling with is, where does this trust come from and how do clergy maintain it? In the first installment of the Institute’s new publication series, Kroc Insight, Program Officer Daniel Orth and Building Trust Partnership cohort members Cornelius Bowser and Archie Robinson explore the difficult balancing act that faith leaders must make to avoid being seen as too closely aligned to the police or the community.
Topic:
Religion, Leadership, Peace, Police, Community, and Faith
Political Geography:
United States and North America

14. A Hollow Victory Over the Islamic State in Syria? The High Risk of Jihadi Revival in Deir ez-Zor's Euphrates River Valley

Author:
Hassan Hassan, Paul Cruickshank, Stephen Hummel, F. John Burpo, James Bonner, and Ross Dayton
Publication Date:
02-2019
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
CTC Sentinel
Institution:
The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point
Abstract:
In Syria, the Islamic State has now been reduced to a few vanishing pockets in Deir ez-Zor’s Middle Euphrates River Valley as a result of two separate military offensives on opposite sides of the river by Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and forces loyal to the Assad regime. But while Deir ez-Zor has now been essentially liberated from the Islamic State, securing and stabilizing the region will likely prove much harder. In our cover article, Hassan Hassan writes the “long period it took the overstretched SDF to liberate the east side of the Euphrates afforded the Islamic State time to create sleeper cells.” He argues the fact that the west side is again under Assad regime control will likely provide opportunities to both the Islamic State and the al-Qa`ida offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham to tap into local Sunni anger to rebuild their operations. Hassan warns there will be even more opportunities for jihadis to rebound if the Assad regime exploits what will likely be a vacuum left by soon-to-depart U.S. forces to take control of the areas liberated by the SDF. All this, he warns, creates a very real risk that the border region between Syria and Iraq could emerge as a long-term threat to global security, just like the border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban. Our interview is with Shaun Greenough, the Case Strategy and Mentor Supervisor at The Unity Initiative (TUI), a specialist intervention consultancy based in the United Kingdom that focuses on rehabilitating individuals convicted of terrorist offenses and tackling absolutist mindsets in the wider community. Greenough previously served in a variety of counterterrorism roles including managing aspects of the U.K. police investigation into the 2006 transatlantic airline plot. Major Stephen Hummel, Colonel F. John Burpo, and Brigadier General James Bonner, the Commanding General of the U.S. Army’s 20th CBRNE Command, warn there is a high risk that profit-minded suppliers within vast, transnational IED networks may in the future expand into WMD proliferation. They write “the convergence of these two seemingly separate networks does not mean that an IED facilitation network will suddenly market WMD, rather that non-state actors could employ these networks to gather the knowledge, people, materials, finances, and infrastructure required for WMD development and employment.” Ross Dayton assesses the threat posed by the ELN terrorist group, which in January 2019 carried out an apparent suicide bombing on the national police academy in Bogotá, Colombia, that killed over 20 police cadets. “The ELN now operates in 12 Venezuelan states with virtual impunity under the Maduro government,” he writes, allowing “ELN fighters to escape the jurisdiction of Colombian security forces and exploit opportunities for illicit financing and recruitment.”
Topic:
Non State Actors, Counter-terrorism, Islamic State, Syrian War, Police, Jihad, and IED
Political Geography:
Middle East, Colombia, South America, Syria, and Global Focus

15. Vigilante Groups and Policing in a Democratizing NigeriA: Navigating the Context and Issues

Author:
Adeniyi S. Basiru and Olusesan A. Osunkoya
Publication Date:
12-2019
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brazilian Journal of African Studies
Institution:
Brazilian Journal of African Studies
Abstract:
Before the advent of colonialism in Nigeria, the various indigenous communities, like elsewhere in Africa, had evolved various self-help institutions (vigilante groups in modern sense) for maintaining public order. But, with the emergence of the colonial state and all its coercive paraphernalia, these traditional institutions of public order management, that had for centuries served the people, were relegated to the background, as the modern police force, the precursor of the present day Nigerian Police, under the direction of the colonial authorities, became the primus inter pares, in the internal security architecture of the colony (Ahire, 1991, 18). With this development, the communal/collectivist-oriented frameworks of policing that had for centuries been part of people’s social existence now constituted the informal models of policing rendering subsidiary roles.
Topic:
Security, Democratization, Governance, Police, and Vigilantism
Political Geography:
Africa and Nigeria

16. Police-citizen interaction in Africa: An exploration of factors that influence victims’ reporting of crimes

Author:
Davin O'Regan
Publication Date:
04-2018
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Afrobarometer
Abstract:
While personal insecurity in Africa is typically associated with civil wars, crime is actually a far more common threat to the continent’s citizens. Rates of homicide, sexual assault, and property crime in Africa are often far higher than global averages. Despite such threats, many Africans do not report crimes to the police. According to surveys conducted in 32 African countries in 2011, 2012, and 2013, 56% of respondents who had experienced a crime within the previous 12 months did not report it to the police. Common explanations for such inhibited reporting of crimes include a general lack of trust in the police, the politicization of police forces, citizens’ inability to easily access the police, or low community cohesion where victims reside. Using multilevel logistic regression techniques, this study tests these explanations. Findings suggest that neither trust in police nor politicization of police forces displays significant influence on citizens’ likelihood of reporting crimes. Likewise, community cohesion bears no consistent relationship with higher rates of reporting, while access to police does appear positively associated with the likelihood of reporting victimizations. Contrary to findings in many developed countries, women in Africa appear to be less likely than men to report crimes to the police.
Topic:
Violence and Police
Political Geography:
Africa

17. Urban Security Exchange: Data, Design and Innovation for Urban Security

Author:
Renata Avelar Giannini, Katherine Aguirre, and Isabel de Sola
Publication Date:
04-2018
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Igarapé Institute
Abstract:
The Urban Security Exchange: Data, Design and Innovation for Urban Security was held on January 22 and 23, 2018 in San Salvador, at a critical time for Central American countries. On one hand, in early 2018, the capitals of the Northern Triangle countries – Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador – reported significant reductions in their high homicide rates; while on the other, these positive results highlighted the complex efforts necessary to maintain this downward trend amidst the struggle against violence. Effectively, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras present some of the highest homicide rates in the world. In 2018, El Salvador leads the ranking and its capital, San Salvador, is one of the most violent cities on the planet. Nevertheless, such cities were able to reduce their homicide rates between 2016 and 2017. In El Salvador, the rate dropped by 34%, in Honduras, 22% and in Guatemala, 4%. This context of persistently high homicide rates in spite of reductions was a key element throughout the discussion endorsed by the Urban Security Exchange.
Topic:
Crime, Law Enforcement, Violence, and Police
Political Geography:
Central America, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador

18. Russian military police in Syria: function and prospects

Author:
Nikolay Surkov
Publication Date:
10-2018
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Geneva Centre for Security Policy
Abstract:
Discussion paper for the workshop on: “The emerging security dynamics and the political settlement in Syria”, Syracuse, Italy, 18-19 October 2018. Since 2015, Syria has been a test-ground for many Russian military innovations. Among them the Russian Military Police (RMP), which quickly became one of the symbols of the Russian involvement in the Syrian crisis. After defeating the militants, the Russian stabilisation and reconciliation strategy included the deployment of forces that could provide security for civilians, negotiators, demining teams and medics. Furthermore, once the ceasefire agreement was reached in 2016, a peacekeeping force was needed to oversee its implementation. Due to domestic and international circumstances, Russia could not deploy combat troops, so the RMP was chosen for its effectiveness and low profile. The RMP provided support to the Reconciliation Centre (RC), secured humanitarian evacuations and monitored de-escalation zones. Despite certain achievements, total success was limited. Due to its size, the RMP was unable to maintain a massive presence in the governmentcontrolled areas to protect the civilian population and shape the security environment. As such, it could not be a substitute for the local and national Syrian forces that were needed to bring peace and stability in the long run.
Topic:
Security, Military Affairs, Syrian War, Police, and Reconciliation
Political Geography:
Russia, Middle East, and Syria

19. Stepping up Synergies of the Danish Comprehensive Approach: The Peace and Stabilization Fund

Author:
Jessica Larsen and Christine Nissen
Publication Date:
12-2018
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
The Danish Peace and Stabilisation Fund is a prime example of how to combine civilian and military instruments to address conflicts in fragile states. However, there is still room for stepping up synergies of the military-civilian balance in Denmark’s comprehensive conflict management. Recommendations ■ Increase the frequency of formal feedback between the field and the strategic level of the PSF to avoid loss of knowledge. ■ Synergies between civilian and military instruments should take place through complimentary-but-separate interventions. ■ Take PSF instruments into account when planning Denmark’s broader engagement in conflicts to ensure a more comprehensive security policy effort.
Topic:
Security, Foreign Policy, Defense Policy, Democratization, Development, Non State Actors, Fragile States, Violence, Peace, Police, and Justice
Political Geography:
Europe and Denmark

20. Politics, Police and Violence: The Regulation of Drug Trafficking in the Southern Cone / Política, policía y violencia: La regulación del Narcotráfico en el Cono Sur

Author:
Hernan Flom
Publication Date:
06-2018
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal on International Security Studies (RESI)
Institution:
International Security Studies Group (GESI) at the University of Granada
Abstract:
Despite being a transnational organized crime, drug trafficking has a local impact in terms of security and violence, which is typically managed by non-national state actors. This paper proposes that, given their juridical and material constraints, subnational state agencies, primarily police forces, regulate drug trafficking through a combination of toleration, repression and rent extraction. I also argue that greater coordination within law enforcement agencies at the subnational level leads to lower drug-related violence at the retail dealing level. I illustrate this argument with a subnational comparison of four cases in Argentina and Brazil during the last two decades.
Topic:
Narcotics Trafficking, Regulation, Violence, Drugs, Police, and Organized Crime
Political Geography:
Brazil, Argentina, and South America