NCJ Number
169424
Date Published
1997
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This paper describes how the police monitors from other countries helped the Haitian police reform their policing philosophy and service.
Abstract
Prior to efforts at police reform in Haiti, the police were agents of the state in suppressing opposition; they were not concerned about providing services to the public. Preparing for an invasion of Haiti to reinstate the elected government, the planners envisioned having a separate police monitoring force. Police from 20 countries interacted with the Haitian police as monitors. Some 300 translators were part of the effort. The total package of approximately 1,300 international police and personnel constituted a monitoring force. The result was a professional, disciplined, experienced police force monitoring the Haitian police to stop human rights abuse by the Haitian police, monitor the retraining of the remaining force, and pave the way for the U.S. Department of Justice to establish a program to train new people. All of the contingents shared democratic values, but it was necessary to articulate the importance of democracy. The managers of the monitoring reform quickly learned that police monitoring is inevitably linked to prison and judicial reform. A prison cannot be reformed without a drastic change in the judiciary. If a corrupt judiciary is left in place, it will quickly undermine all the hard work that went into reforming the police in the first place. It is an issue that the United States should be prepared to deal with in other emerging democracies.