Rights-based approaches to police in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico

• In Event: Policía en América Latina: desarrollos recientes y nueva agenda de investigación

Abstract

Community, problem-oriented, and intelligence-led policing, are law enforcement models grounded on sound, evidence-based research over the last decades. They constitute the cornerstone of modern police reform processes. However, the scope of such models has varied significantly as police institutions in different countries have implemented them in rather diverse social settings. Community policing has become a buzzword among law enforcement bodies worldwide; the meaning of a ‘problem-officer’ or a ‘problem-oriented’ police institution has considerable cultural underpinnings. On the other hand, the sensitive relationship between police work and intelligence gathering is the subject of debate in different political and legal traditions. In addition, the theoretical and operational overlapping between these models makes difficult to clearly identify their specificity, when implemented, turning them into some sort of ideal types. The author of this article reappraises such policing models as part of a larger body of ‘civil rights-based approaches to police reform’. As such, these models are pivotal in the framing of decision-making processes in police institutions, essential for the protection, respect and fulfillment of civil rights. Based on the theoretical developments that support each model, and on fieldwork carried out in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico, the paper analyzes the potential of three police reform processes (2002-2013) to promote crime and violence prevention, focusing on the strategies to launch police-citizen partnerships. After comparing the scope and limitations of the three cases, the paper delves into the intricacies to identify and harness local capacities for crime and violence prevention considering the duties of citizen security decision makers and police officers in the three countries regarding civil rights: to respect, to protect and to fulfill. By means of comparing the normative frameworks and accountability structures that galvanized key police reform processes in the three countries, the study compares the potential to develop community-based policing models. The conclusions draw lessons learned for centralized (Colombia) and federal administrations (Brazil and Mexico).

Author

• Juan Salgado, Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Economicas (CIDE)