NCJ Number
195495
Date Published
2001
Length
63 pages
Annotation
This article reports on a case study of international policing assistance provided to the Republic of Estonia.
Abstract
The authors note that there is scant research directed toward understanding the effects of an international exchange and capacity-building in police values, practices, and technologies. The present research, therefore, is designed to fill this void in knowledge and to provide evidence of the benefits of international assistance in law enforcement to policymakers and practitioners in this field. This project, involving a case study in the Republic of Estonia, was designed to provide a means of examining “assistance-in-practice.” The overarching aim of the Republic of Estonia study was to examine how forms of international policing assistance develop in a country that is transitioning to democracy. The research results indicate that careful record keeping, both by the agency receiving assistance and by the agency providing assistance, is necessary in order to assess the success of such assistance efforts. Similarly, it is necessary for the agency receiving assistance to carefully catalog data pertaining to how business-as-usual was conducted prior to international assistance efforts. Without such data, it is difficult to extrapolate how the international assistance impacted the agency at hand. In conclusion, the authors note that the research project in the Republic of Estonia on international policing assistance was a success, in large part because it enabled them to outline a model or prototype of international policing assistance.