International Standards of Policing: What Can Pakistan Learn From It?

In Blog
April 20, 2021
Mahnoor Islam
18 Views
0 comments

The past year has seen much discussion on the negligence and incompetence of the police around the world. The George Floyd incident brought to light how missed of police power which can result in major harm. Pakistan has also recently seen some incidents resulting in public uproar and calls for introspection the way police handles

The past year has seen much discussion on the negligence and incompetence of the police around the world. The George Floyd incident brought to light how missed of police power which can result in major harm. Pakistan has also recently seen some incidents resulting in public uproar and calls for introspection the way police handles such situations. Naqeebullah’s police encounter, Sahiwal incident and recent incident of Usama Satti are to name the few. Can police avoid such situations? An effective, well trained police force is vital in order to curb police brutality and extra-judicial killings.

Police in Pakistan is dealing with some challenges that contribute towards its incapacity to deal with these situations especially when it comes to personnel on ground. The department is understaffed and policemen are under-equipped. The police also lack forensic services and have suffered because of the decades of corruption, nepotism and political manipulation. Pakistan’s civilian law enforcement structure has failed to develop any advanced counterterrorism strategies because of the lack of modern investigative tools, requisite skills and incentives. The perception and image of police with the common man also causes hurdles for the police when it comes to law enforcement, which sees police as the oppressor and a tool for usurpation.

A sound legal framework is a precondition for an efficient police force. A police training framework should discuss the role of the police clearly which is to maintain law and order, to protect an individual’s rights and freedoms, to prevent crimes and to provide assistance to the general public. It should discuss the limits of power and what may account to abuse of power. The police should not cross the boundaries set by domestic legislation as well as international law.

The police have powers which temporality deprive people of their freedom of movement and are allowed to use a lethal weapon in extreme circumstances such as terrorism. The police should operate by the principle that ‘everyone shall be subject to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the right and freedom of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.’ Recently, a judgement by the Honorable Supreme Court has also clarified and limited police’s power of arrest in cases. Justice Syed Mahnoor Ali Shah held held that a police officer should have sufficient grounds prior to exercise of his discretion to arrest a person on the basis of some allegations. In order to make sure police don’t exceed their powers, the police officers must know and should perform their duties in line with the universally agreed standards of Human Rights as put forward by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In 2014, The UN introduced the Strategic Guidance Framework for International Policing (SGF) which aimed to define the ‘what’ of UN policing and ensure a more consistent approach towards police reform. The policy discusses four guideline documents that describe four core areas of police administration, police capacity building, police command and police operations. Additional manuals have also been published which describe specific police tasks such as community-oriented policing and intelligence-led policing.

What can be learned from the UN Framework is that the basic functions of the police don’t vary from country to country and can be easily incorporated into domestic legislation. As mentioned above, the SGF states that the main duties of the police is to prevent, detect and investigate crime along with protecting people and their property while also maintaining public safety. The SGF also mentions that all officials have an ‘obligation’ to protect and respect human rights which include the right to life, liberty and security. On accountability, the SGF as well as the UN’s Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials states that the police are accountable to the law, the public and to the civilian democratic oversight bodies. The UN also discusses the need for effective mechanisms for accountability over police conduct such as in situations of human rights violations. There is a need or robust accountability mechanisms in Pakistan as well which strive to uphold the definition of accountability under the SGF.

The UN has also recognised that community problems require community engaged solutions. Therefore, efforts have been made by the UN to support local police through a community-orientated policing approach. This can be seen in the SGF as ‘strategy for encouraging the public to act as partners with the police in preventing and managing crime as well as other aspects of security and order based on the needs of the community.’ Success of such a model can be seen in the city of Camden, New Jersey in the US. In 2013, the police was reformed and an improvement in the community engagement between the police and the public. The community had become more inclined towards sharing information with the police regarding crimes.

According to the United Nations Police in Peacekeeping Operations and Special Political Missions, the UN has introduced Formed Police Units whose main aim is public order management, whose main focus is to facilitate the population’s exercise of human rights without disturbance or hindrance. When discussing capacity building and development, according to the United Nations Police in Peacekeeping Operations and Special Political Missions, capacity building efforts work to strengthen the aptitudes, resources, relationships and conditions which are necessary to achieve an intended purpose which is to maintain law and order and protect civilians. Institution building is also considered to be an essential part of capacity building along with engagement with individual personnel, organisational units aswell as broader institutions. All capacity building activities are subject to regular, systematic and objective monitoring and evaluation in order to determine relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and/or sustainability. The UN also regularly reviews accountability procedures for both internal and external management of their police. Individual training experts are also attached to each capacity building programme.

With regards to training, the UN uses Performance Gap Analysis and Training Needs Assessments to come up with a comprehensive training plan. Education includes a number of areas such as anti-corruption, managerial and problem solving skills, prevention and investigation of sexual and gender based violence, legal issues, criminal intelligence and operational policing skills as well as contemporary training methodologies and techniques. An implementation of this can be seen in Germany where the German police training covers everything from domestic violence cases to situational management such as how to disarm someone who has a lethal weapon.The UN has also introduced gender sensitive policing as well which they have deemed as an operational necessity to address the differentiated security needs of women, men, girls and boys.

To sum, Pakistan’s police needs to incorporate international standards into its policing. What Pakistan can do is implement the policies that have been introduced by the UN and incorporate them into their training manuals. The UN has a very comprehensive police training system. It will also help police in Pakistan towards betterment of its image as it incorporates these quality standards into its training and practice. Change can come only by introducing better policies and removing some fundamental hindrances such as nepotism and political pressures. There is a lot to learn for Pakistan from these international standards.