Twitter Feed

International policing ‘best practice’: learning lessons, transferring knowledge and developing guiding principles

Written by Dr Georgina Sinclair, SIPR Associate

‘Mission Challenges, Lessons Learned and Guiding Principles; Policing with Communities in FCAS’. Workshop hosted by the Guarda Nacional Republicana (GNR) in Lisbon, Portugal 2017

(photo © GNR)

This collection of essays can be viewed at: https://www.sipr.ac.uk/downloads/Sinclair_Burdett_MCLLGP.pdf

Policing assistance within an international mission environment is widely recognised as being complex and fraught with challenges. Within security sector reform programmes, policing is a central pillar, encompassing a range of activities that have moved beyond monitoring of local police organisations to reforming, rebuilding, restructuring and redeveloping. There is broad recognition of the need to better understand the challenges faced by police practitioners within this context. Recent and ongoing initiatives by international organisations including the United Nations and the European Union are working towards the development of mission ‘best practice’ through a ‘lessons-to-be-learned’ approach and transfer into guidance material.

Contributing to the wider debate on mission ‘best practice’ within international policing assistance is at the core of this project entitled ‘Policing with Communities in Fragile and Conflict-Affected States (FCAS)’. It brings together a group of police practitioners, academics and security sector reform experts drawn from across Europe with experience and interest in international policing. The group recognised that there should be more engagement with the challenges faced in mission through a ‘lessons learned’ approach that would help to build sustainable overseas projects. This stemmed from a growing body of anecdotal evidence from mission lessons learned and best practice perceived as key in contributing to mission effectiveness and sustainability and the building of institutional memory.

In this context ‘lessons learned’ could be understood as an occurrence or finding within a particular context that impacts sufficiently to require further development and/or monitoring. In the experience of the author, many police practitioners perceive international lessons emanating from the operational, procedural and conceptual (e.g. stakeholder coherence and coordination; international cooperation; implementation of mandate; recruitment; training and staffing; procurement, budget and finances) and lodged within the strategic and political (mandate feasibility; comprehensive approach; impact assessment and local context). Once a lesson has been observed it becomes a lesson identified that can bring about a rethink of pre-existing concepts, the development of planning, training programmes, monitoring and evaluation and so on.  That lesson is only learned after remedial action has been undertaken to bring about change. ‘Best’ practice’ within an international mission might be referred to as successful practice that can be repeated, though it can be argued that there could be wider references to ‘good practice’ when referring to short term mission effectiveness and efficiency within the context of fragile or failed states. However, most missions have lacked the personnel, resources or timeframe to build this approach into institutional learning and corporate memory. Whilst there are many independent silos of learning within the European Union and other international institutions, knowledge exchange and transfer of training activities across all missions have little if any linkage. This should be urgently addressed as knowledge transfer – whether through formal or informal exchanges between practitioners –helps to build police professionalism within that international setting. Importantly it contributes to the longevity and impact of that mission, which in turn can benefit the host country community and police stakeholders.

This ongoing project began with an initial workshop held in Lisbon in January 2017 and supported by the Joint International Policing Hub (JIPH), which operates off the UK government’s Stabilisation Unit platform, in partnership with the Guarda Nacional Republicana (GNR) in Portugal.  The aim of this workshop was to bring together a cross-section of European police and gendarmes with international mission expertise to broadly debate and disseminate mission challenges, consider lessons learned and develop guiding principles. The discussions further benefitted from the observations of international policing experts and representatives from the JIPH, GNR and the European External Action Service (EEAS)/Civilian Planning and Conduct Capability (CPCC), who brought their wide experiences of international policing. Participants were invited within their original presentations to select an appropriate topic that reflected the project’s core theme of ‘policing with communities in fragile and conflict affected states’. Each of the papers touched on a range of EU and UN missions (including Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, East Timor, South Sudan and the Sahel Region), highlighting the experiences of participants from the late 1990s through to the present. Importance was placed on identifying challenges that ranged from issues of cultural awareness and sensitivity to risk taking, leadership and soft skills to police-military cooperation and local stakeholder involvement within the mission arena. Each participant noted that there was an urgent need to capture lessons which could be meshed within future institutional guidance material, wider police learning and shared ‘best practice’. More often than not an approach to better practice emerged through trial and error and a degree of risk-taking from that practitioner.

Emanating from the workshop has been a collection of nine practitioner-led essays and an introduction to the topic. The aim has been to spark further discussions of how and why practitioners operate within a mission in the way that they do, how they meet the challenges of a mission that is so far removed from their home policing environments and may remove them from their comfort zones. It is hoped that this output will make a positive contribution to the development of current best practice for use by police practitioners when deploying to an international environment, and raise the profile of international policing assistance.

References:

Argyris & D. Schon (1978). Organizational Learning, a theory of action perspective. University of Michigan: Addison-Wesley Publishers. Co.

Cremonini (2015). ‘Lessons learnt and best practices’ in J. Rehrl & G. Glume (2015) (eds.). Handbook on CSDP Missions and Operations: The Common Security and Defence Policy of the European Union. Vienna, Austria: Directorate for Security Policy of the Federal Ministry of Defence and Sports of the Republic of Austria.

All correspondence is welcomed and should be addressed to Georgina Sinclair: Georgina.Sinclair@stratexint.com

Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License

Social Share:

Other Latest News

Seldom Heard Voices: Community Impact Event 

01/05/2023

In 2021, SIPR, Police Scotland and Scottish Police Authority funded 5 grants to support research into ‘Seldom Heard’ communities. On Wednesday 26th April, we hosted a collaborative event to present the final research projects to an audience of academics, community members, NGO members, and Police Scotland staff and serving officers. First up, Kirsty Forrester from Dundee City Council and Dr Jonathan Mendel from the University of Dundee discussed their collaborative research with BAME communities and serving officers, highlighting the need for trust. Second, Dr Andrew Williams from St. Andrews and Inspector Jason Peter from the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit presented their ‘Photovoice’ Project which aimed to encourage young people in areas of inequality to engage with their community by taking pictures. Third, Dr Julie Berg and Emily Mann from University of Glasgow and University of Edinburgh respectively presented their project’ Accounting for Complexities: an Intersectional Approach to Enhancing Police Practitioner Accountability, Legitimacy & Sustainable Reform’. Fourth, Professor James Moir and Dr Corinne Jola from Abertay University focus on the topic of empathy with LGBT youth who are care experienced or are from other disadvantaged background. Finally, Bryony Nisbet from Queen Margaret University presented her and Dr Nicole Vidal’s research into refugee and asylum-seeker experiences, trust and confidence with Police Scotland. Following the presentations, representatives from Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority were invited to reflect on the findings and recommendations, and to provide assurances of the SPA and Police Scotland’s ongoing commitment to the communities and the issues raised. Assistant Chief Constable Emma Bond, said: “This important research underlines our commitment to listening to all our communities so we can continually improve how we represent, reflect and serve them. “Providing every citizen with a just and effective police service is fundamental to policing legitimacy and to our ability to keep people safe. “A great strength of Police Scotland is that our officers and staff are drawn from different backgrounds and experiences. What unites us is our shared and non-negotiable set of values – integrity, fairness, respect and a commitment to upholding human rights. “I am grateful to everyone who contributed to this work and we are already considering the recommendations made so that we can continue to design our services to best meet the needs of our communities.” Tom Halpin from the Scottish Police Authority said “The Authority is committed to policing in the public interest, to do that we must understand public views, opinions, and concerns. The research published today will allow us to gain more insight into where to target our activity and attention to ensure we build the strongest relationships we can with all communities in Scotland.” SIPR Director Liz Aston underlined SIPR’s commitment stating that “SIPR will continue to support the dissemination of these important research findings in order to ensure that they impact policing policy and practice”. SIPR hopes to continue to support research into Seldom Heard Communities.

Announcement

28/04/2023

After seven years as a SIPR Associate Director, Professor Denise Martin has made the difficult decision to step down.

SIPR Associate Director

28/04/2023

Following Professor Denise Martin’s decision to step down from her role as SIPR Associate Director and lead of the Education and Leadership network, SIPR is now inviting applications from prospective candidates to take on this role.

SIPR Newsletter Sign Up

You will be added to our mailing list to keep you updated with future events and activities from the Scottish Institute for Policing Research

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. For further information please read our Privacy Policy.