Pakistani Police at USIP, Talking Challenges and Changing Cultures

June 7, 2012

USIP's Pakistan Program and its Security Sector Governance Center welcomed a delegation of senior Pakistani police officers recently for a discussion on police and law enforcement challenges in Pakistan.

The group, hosted by the Department of Justice's International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program, or ICITAP, visited June 1. USIP's expertise on law enforcement in conflict and post-conflict environments formed the backbone of the afternoon's discussion. In particular, a conversational thread found the officers and USIP experts debating how to change a police culture when broader cultural factors – political, economic and social – are not conducive to these changes, especially when citizen voices are not empowered. The group of officers, including senior leaders from Pakistan's National Police Academy, indicated that they are attempting to address this quandary through a focus on training aimed at cultural sensitization, media relations, community policing, traffic policing and youth engagement. Within this focus on training is the recognition that leadership is key to addressing Pakistan's policing challenges sustainably.

For USIP's Security Sector Governance Center Director Robert Perito, addressing these challenges starts by implementing the core values of policing: availability, responsiveness and fairness. In recent years, Pakistan achieved considerable success in reforming the motorway and Islamabad traffic police through changes tied to these core values. The Pakistani officers noted, however, that this success was enabled by the limited role of the traffic police and it could be difficult to replicate in other police divisions. Given this reality, finding creative solutions was identified as critical given the widening scope of Pakistan's policing dilemmas.

In spite of the ongoing deadlock at the very top of the U.S.-Pakistan relationship, the recent conversation at USIP made it clear that there is a real and critical opportunity for engagement between U.S. and Pakistani law enforcement institutions on these myriad police challenges. In the coming months, USIP aims to play a role in helping to facilitate this engagement, both as a repository of unique expertise, and as a convener.

Stephanie Flamenbaum is a senior program assistant in USIP's Afghanistan and Pakistan Program.

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