What is Community-Based Policing?

While security continues to become an imperious priority in the four corners of the world, third world countries continue to experience endless conflicts between the police and the community due to a wide range of factors across political, economic, cultural, and social lines. This paper aims to analytically critique the article, 'Emerging Perspectives on Post-Conflict Police-Community Relation II' to ascertain the rationality of the authors’ argument inclining to the idea that COP approaches are more effective in building trust, ensuring human security, and preventing violence than the militarized approaches. The authors’ opinions are also subject to the role of Information, Communication and Technology in enhancing such approaches at local and national levels. 

Authors’ biographical data essential to the article 

The research concerning the article under evaluation is based on a current study conducted by Dr. Ingrid Nyborg and Daniel Juddson Lohmann. Having been published on May 5, 2020, the articles entail research based on the current security trends, which affect the relationship between police and society (Davey, 2020). The two authors' qualifications must have been of significant contribution to the research since they strongly relate to the research topic. Dr. Nyborg's extensive experience in teaching post-conflict development and human security directly contributes to the relevance of the article (Davey, 2020). Working in Africa and South Asia has given her considerable expertise in research as well as her partner Daniel Lohmann whose experience is based on computer software systems. His contribution is vital to the research exploration of how information and communication technology can contribute to trust between the community and the police. 

Purpose of the article and work interpretation 

Following a thorough review of the article's literature, it was inevitable to agree to the authors' informative and well-reasoned ideas build around the existing world insecurities such as terrorism, civil wars, and armed conflicts ( Nyborg & Lohmann, 2020) . Yet, the authors argue that there is still a chance to gain stability and rebuild the pre-existing trust before the conflict despite these conflicts ( Nyborg & Lohmann, 2020) . Despite there been formal political peace processes, conflict cannot be terminated entirely as it is part of everyday life, yet, its violent nature can be mitigated. 

The authors' successes and accomplishment 

I concur with the authors' view that meager financial resources, over-expectations and miscommunication, lack of adequately trained human resources, and high illiteracy levels among society members are the major contributor to the predominant conflicts, poor community-police relations, and mistrust in the third world countries ( Nyborg & Lohmann, 2020) . The rampant cases of police violation of human rights discourage cooperation between police and the citizen. 

The authors suggested that, by rethinking and practicing COP, it was possible to build the trust between the community and the police so long as the government intervenes to intensify surveillance technology and control the social media content pertaining to the subject ( Nyborg & Lohmann, 2020) . The policemen's incompetency at work, often attributed to illiteracy and the youth's perspectives on nepotism, systematic corruption reveals the primary issues that need to be addressed first to achieve the national goal of security. 

As the author claims, the overall community-based policing can only be achieved through collaborative efforts from the community and the relevant policing agents ( Nyborg & Lohmann, 2020) . Lack of grounds to develop consensus exacerbates the risk of conflict development to the extent that violence is viewed as the only solution to the existing differences. 

Authors’ shortcomings 

Despite citing incidences of insecurity in several third world countries such as Kenya and Afghanistan, the authors fail to give comprehensive solutions on how COP can be implemented in the presence of financial constraints affecting such countries ( Andvig & Fjeldstad, 2008) . Corruption in the higher ranks of law enforcement agencies, low police salaries, and recruitments based on relatively low grades are the primary issues that would need to be addressed to accomplish the authors' objective. 

Although the articles accounts for information based on research from other countries obtained through interviews on local citizens, the data is presented in a short account without statistical evidence to justify its reliability. Moreover, the authors are pessimistic in believing that trust can ultimately be achieved in a police-community relationship and that the existing policing approaches derived from the post-conflict settings have, for a long time, been unable to establish accountability, democracy, and freedom from police-based violations ( Nyborg & Lohmann, 2020) . Yet, in countries such as Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom, where police are well paid, policing is viewed as any other profession that necessitates skills in solving conflicts. Consequently, close connections between the police and the community exist, and the cases of corruption are minimal. 

Impact of the article on gender 

The authors recognize the role played by security in the protection of vulnerable groups such as the minority, youths, and women. Establishing firm community-based policing relations maintains peace, prevents crime, and, more importantly, eradicates gender-based violence projected towards young women and members of a certain minority group. 

Conclusion 

The article's few shortcomings, relevance, and contribution to community-based security cannot be disregarded. Additionally, in the current era of globalization and technological advancement, the governments in developing countries need to take advantage of innovation to promote security at all levels of leadership. However, the primary hindrance, which involves large-scale corruption in high-ranking government officials, the bureaucracy, police force, and other regulatory agencies, must be addressed in order to resurface the trust with citizens. 

References 

Andvig, J. C., & Fjeldstad, O. H. (2008). Crime, poverty and police corruption in non-rich countries. 

Davey, N. (2020). Community-Based Policing and Post-Conflict Police Reform . https://communitypolicing.eu/dr-ingrid-nyborg-project-leader/ 

Nyborg, I., & Lohmann, D. J. (2020). Emerging Perspectives on Post-Conflict Police-Community Relations II.  Journal of Human Security ,  16 (2), 1.