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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Commentary: community policing: a panacea from the West
Author:Brogden, MikeISNI
Year:2004
Periodical:African Affairs: The Journal of the Royal African Society
Volume:103
Issue:413
Pages:635-649
Language:English
Geographic terms:Africa
Uganda
Subjects:community development
police
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/3518494
Abstract:Some recent articles in 'African Affairs', notably a critique of community policing in Nairobi by M. Ruteere and M.-E Pommerolle (in: African Affairs, vol. 102, no. 409 (2003), p. 587-604) represent a useful addition to the literature on the 'new' policing in Africa. The present commentary places Ruteere and Pommerolle's study on a wider canvas. Drawing on varied secondary materials from Africa and also from the Indian subcontinent, it makes four points. Firstly, the experience of Nairobi is not unique. It appears that, almost without exception, Community-Oriented Policing (COP) schemes have simply assisted paramilitary policing agencies in co-opting local business and political elites. Secondly, evident in such schemes has been a combination of arrogance and incompetence in the application of a generalized policing model, with little relevance to the local context. Thirdly, Western experts have portrayed COP, especially its key components of problemsolving, of Community Forums, and of Neighbourhood Watch Schemes, as a success story in the West, but the evidence is otherwise. Fourthly, COP is increasingly being sold to African and South Asian societies as a solution to complex social issues. Special attention is paid to the failure of community policing in Uganda. Notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]
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