Democratizing the Police Abroad: What to Do and How to Do it

Abstract

This report sets forth the lessons that observers and participants have learnedabout the process of changing police organizations so as to support democracy.It is based on the study of three bodies of literature: studies of efforts to change police practices in the developed democracies, especially in the UnitedStates; accounts of the experience with foreign assistance to police abroad under both bilateral and multilateral auspices; and accounts of the actions of nongovernmental human rights organizations to rectify police abuses. More than 500 books, articles, reports, and documents were reviewed in this study. The bibliography attached to this report probably encompasses the largest number of materials on efforts to change police organizations ever collected.