Latest News

GC Researches Liberia National Police Relationship with Civilians

The Governance Commission, GC, has completed a research on the “United Nations Training of the Liberia National Police: Effectiveness, Results and Future Implications”, implemented by the United Nations Mission in Liberia, UNMIL. The research takes a microscopic look at the relationship between the Liberian National Police and civilians in post conflict Liberia. Key findings from the study disclose numerous contending issues that negatively impact public trust and integrity in the police; and interventions to help mitigate possible future problems.

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed among the warring parties in Accra, Ghana, on August 18, 2003 called for its implementation to be led by the United Nations. Against this backdrop, the United Nations issued UN Security Council Resolution 1509 which established the United Nation’s Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) with the mandate to monitor the ceasefire agreement, provide national security protection, and implement security sector reforms including training and restructuring of the Liberian National Police (LNP).

The findings note several categorized internal and external challenges in UNMIL’s training program, suggesting that the training program has yielded mixed results and impacts on the effectiveness of police performance in Liberia. Adverse impacts, however, are not entirely training related but results also from the behavior of the Government of Liberia towards its police force.

Deficiencies in the UNMIL’s police training and reform interventions reflect a broader problem of shortcomings in various reform programs implemented by the UN and other international nongovernmental organizations in Liberia. The greater shortcomings in the implementation of reform programs are: (a) lack of strategic guidance for a long-term larger vision for a post-conflict society; and (b) lack of effective coordination amongst implementing agencies, and their failure to engage Liberians as stakeholders in designing and implementing reform programs.

The study’s findings are categorized in three sections:

  1. Recruitment
  2. Training and
  3. Effectiveness of Performance
  1. Recruitment

According to the findings:

  • UNMIL’s recruitment and vetting practices were not exhaustive as candidates were not investigated with due diligence regarding their character and previous human rights records. The procedures were not thorough and did not adhere to the standards applied in other UN police reform missions (2004-2007).
  • UNMIL’s failure to apply due diligence resulted in the admission into the program of known criminals and former combatants of warring factions who had committed human rights abuses during the civil war. Preference for quantity in recruitment of large numbers of candidates compromised quality in the context of establishing a sustainable long-term police force. (Target was training 3,500 officers by 2007).
  • Psychological counseling was needed as part of the training package because the country was just emerging from 14 year civil conflict which traumatized the nation. Former combatants, criminals, and individuals with questionable character had found their way into the rank-and-file of the new police force and some had become supervisors.

UNMIL’s shortcomings

  • The admission of individuals who had committed human rights abuses was partly responsible for the citizens’ lack of trust, and confidence in the new police to bear arms and integrity of the police as an instrument for peace-building, given that some of the UNMIL trained officers were found to be involved in various crimes, such as armed robberies and drug smuggling around the country; and
  • UNMIL’s decision to deactivate and disband the entire old LNP and to build an entirely new one was contrary to international police reform standards, and resulted in the lack of institutional memory and the absence of experienced police leadership.

Government’s shortcomings

From the perspective of the government, qualitative findings show that:

  • The Liberian government failed to provide adequate resource support to complement UNMIL’s training due to its weak commitment; and did not put itself in the position to take ownership and provide much needed leadership and direction;
  • Had government committed to taking responsibility and ownership of the training program, it would have been able to insist on country-specific training and orientation of the LNP.
  1. Training

UNMIL Perspective:

  • Correlations and regression used to test the hypotheses show a moderately significant correlation between police perceived knowledge and skills gained during UNMIL training and the job effectiveness perceived by them. In other words, the police job performance is the result of the training acquired, and effected some relative changes to the maintenance of law and order. However, as an inverse relationship, as knowledge gained increases, job performance changed in manner or direction.
  • The implication is that as more resources were used in training the police, limited resources were allocated to facilitate their job performance;
  • Diversity of trainers from contrasting policing jurisdictions compromised training effectiveness and produced an outcome that lacked a country-specific context for Liberia. (training, organization, structure, and rank nomenclatures); and
  • The LNP was not trained under a uniform criminal justice system and tradition. Liberia is a common law country with a criminal justice system and a policing tradition specifically patterned after that of the United States.

Government’s Perspective:

The Government of Liberia did not take ownership of the training program and did not provide needed resource support to complement UNMIL’s training. Equipment and Resources were complementary to UNMIL’s training and necessary to ensure effectiveness of performance.

  1. Effectiveness of Performance
  • The police job performance is the result of the training acquired, and effected some relative changes to the maintenance of law and order. However, as an inverse relationship, as knowledge gained increases, job performance changed in manner or direction.
  • Civil society does not believe that the LNP was capable to maintain law and order after UNMIL leaves Liberia. Police and civil society agreed that police lacks the capacity to respond effectively and timely to crimes. They linked these to the need for sustained resource support from government and additional training. This significant relationship further implies that police effectiveness would be higher if their capacity regarding logistics and materials for job performance were adequately provided.
  • The LNP remains state-centric and not people-centric. The reform intervention did not address political interference in policing operations and therefore the need to depoliticize the police; and
  • UNMIL training had no impact on integrity in the exercise of police authority. Police and civil society linked the lack of integrity within the LNP to factors such as poor salary, and benefits such as housing, transportation, medical care, and pension programs for officers.

According to the study, international police reform assistance has become an integral component of post-conflict peacekeeping and state building operations of the United Nations. The overarching goal is to support sustainable state-building and democratic governance. Since 1990s, the UN has increasingly been mandated to maintain international security by involvement in international security sector reforms through police training in countries transitioning from conflict to democracies with emphasis on respect for human rights and the rule of law. 

It can be recalled that Liberia in December of 1999, was plunged into a bloody civil war which lasted fourteen (14) years, leaving the country devastated, a death toll put at more than 200,000, and hundreds of thousands more made either internally or externally displaced, becoming a nation inflicted with untold human suffering, military/police brutality, and cases of genocide. Policing issues revolving around inadequate response, political suppression, and abuse of human rights before and during the civil war were also central to the dynamics of the Liberian conflict.

Study’s Recommendations:

  1. The Liberian Government and UNMIL must collaborate to professionalize, depoliticize and restructure the LNP as a semi-autonomous service institution; and to situate the police in its common law criminal justice system with organization, structure, and rank nomenclatures harmonized with its policing tradition. A functioning professional police service will reduce the risk of conflict and make society safer by providing security for all, and creating the enabling environment for investment, sustainable economic development, enhance state authority, and strengthen Liberia’s semi-fragile democracy.
  1. Liberian government in collaboration with the Civil Service Agency should establish a pay and grade system base on position classification that begins with police entry-level officers, and benefits graduated over time period. Housing, medical care, education for dependents and other benefits must be legislated.

The report notes that Liberia is a common law country with a criminal justice system, and a policing tradition patterned after that of the United States of America. Policing in Liberia is based on that particular context and history, which should have been the basis upon which UNMIL’s police training, was conducted. Therefore, future UN police training missions must be guided by the general standard of a strong partnership and collaboration to integrate, rehabilitate and strengthen what is found on the ground in the host country. UN should also collaborate with local counterparts to reform national institutions to place it in synch with contemporary international policing principles and standards. As far as practicable, trainers must be recruited from countries whose policing traditions and jurisdictions are the same or similar to that of the host country.