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THE ARTS This PDF document was made available from www.rand.org as a public CHILD POLICY service of the RAND Corporation. CIVIL JUSTICE EDUCATION ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT Jump down to document6 HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS NATIONAL SECURITY The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit research POPULATION AND AGING organization providing objective analysis and effective PUBLIC SAFETY solutions that address the challenges facing the public SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY and private sectors around the world. SUBSTANCE ABUSE TERRORISM AND HOMELAND SECURITY TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE WORKFORCE AND WORKPLACE Support RAND Purchase this document Browse Books & Publications Make a charitable contribution For More Information Visit RAND at www.rand.org Explore the RAND National Defense Research Institute View document details Limited Electronic Distribution Rights This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law as indicated in a notice appearing later in this work. This electronic representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for non-commercial use only. Unauthorized posting of RAND PDFs to a non-RAND Web site is prohibited. RAND PDFs are protected under copyright law. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of our research documents for commercial use. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please see RAND Permissions. This product is part of the RAND Corporation occasional paper series. RAND occasional papers may include an informed perspective on a timely policy issue, a discussion of new research methodologies, essays, a paper presented at a conference, a conference summary, or a summary of work in progress. All RAND occasional papers undergo rigorous peer review to ensure that they meet high standards for research quality and objectivity. Oversight of the Liberian National Police David C. Gompert, Robert C. Davis, Brooke Stearns Lawson Prepared for the Office of the Secretary of Defense Approved for public release; distribution unlimited NATIONAL DEFENSE RESEARCH INSTITUTE The research described in this report was prepared for the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD). The research was conducted in the RAND National Defense Research Institute, a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the OSD, the Joint Staff, the Unified Combatant Commands, the Department of the Navy, the Marine Corps, the defense agencies, and the defense Intelligence Community under Contract W74V8H-06-C-0002. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available for this publication. ISBN 978-0-8330-4627-7 The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit research organization providing objective analysis and effective solutions that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors around the world. RAND’s publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors. R® is a registered trademark. © Copyright 2009 RAND Corporation Permission is given to duplicate this document for personal use only, as long as it is unaltered and complete. Copies may not be duplicated for commercial purposes. Unauthorized posting of RAND documents to a non-RAND Web site is prohibited. RAND documents are protected under copyright law. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please visit the RAND permissions page (http://www.rand.org/publications/ permissions.html). Published 2009 by the RAND Corporation 1776 Main Street, P.O. Box 2138, Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138 1200 South Hayes Street, Arlington, VA 22202-5050 4570 Fifth Avenue, Suite 600, Pittsburgh, PA 15213-2665 RAND URL: http://www.rand.org To order RAND documents or to obtain additional information, contact Distribution Services: Telephone: (310) 451-7002; Fax: (310) 451-6915; Email: [email protected] Preface This paper is a supplementary component of a RAND Corporation research project for the U.S. government under which RAND was asked to advise the Liberian and U.S. governments on security sector transformation in Liberia. This follow-up work to the broader study focuses more specifically on the question of police oversight. This paper should be of interest to the Liberian government, the U.S. government, the United Nations, other countries and organi- zations now engaged in reforming Liberia’s security sector, and students and practitioners of security sector reform and police oversight in general. By agreement with the U.S. and Liberian governments, and by RAND’s own tradition, the analysis and findings reported in this paper are independent. Although RAND worked closely with both governments while performing its study, the results are not to be interpreted as the views of either government. This research was sponsored by the Office of the Secretary of Defense and conducted within the International Security and Defense Policy Center of the RAND National Defense Research Institute, a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff, the Unified Combatant Commands, the Department of the Navy, the Marine Corps, the defense agencies, and the defense Intelligence Community. For more information on RAND’s International Security and Defense Policy Center, contact the Director, James Dobbins. He can be reached by email at James_Dobbins@rand. org; by phone at 703-413-1100, extension 5134; or by mail at the RAND Corporation, 1200 S. Hayes Street, Arlington, Virginia 22202. More information about RAND is available at www.rand.org. iii Contents Preface ........................................................................................................... iii Figure and Tables ..............................................................................................vii Summary ........................................................................................................ ix Acknowledgments ............................................................................................xiii Abbreviations ...................................................................................................xv CHAPTER ONE Introduction ..................................................................................................... 1 Purpose ............................................................................................................ 1 Background ....................................................................................................... 1 Approach .......................................................................................................... 2 CHAPTER TWO African Experience ............................................................................................. 5 Forms of African Police Oversight ............................................................................ 5 Relevant African Practices in Police Oversight ............................................................... 6 South Africa .................................................................................................... 6 Nigeria ........................................................................................................... 8 Ghana ........................................................................................................... 8 CHAPTER THREE Options for Liberia ............................................................................................11 CHAPTER FOUR Recommendations for LNP Oversight ....................................................................15 References .......................................................................................................19 v Figure and Tables Figure 3.1. Conceptual Options for Oversight ..............................................................12 Tables S.1. Comparison of Oversight Options and Proposed Approach..............................................x 3.1. Assessment of Conceptual Oversight Options ................................................................13 4.1. Comparison of Conceptual Oversight Options and Proposed Approach ........................17 vii Summary The Liberian National Police (LNP) will become the chief provider of security in Liberia as the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) is reduced.1 Given the LNP’s capabilities and complexity, its past manipulation by former President Charles Taylor, and a pattern of police misconduct in much of Africa, the question of oversight is critical. At the request of the U.S. government, RAND analyzed the issue of oversight of the LNP to identify options and make recommendations for consideration by the Government of Liberia and its principal supporters, the United States and the United Nations (UN).2 This paper contains the results of RAND’s analysis. This paper is based on and organized according to an analytic approach that examines LNP oversight in light of African experience and Liberian conditions. A summary of police oversight models and the relevant experiences of other African states is followed by our identi- fication and assessment of broad options for Liberia and our recommendations. There are three LNP functions that require external oversight: government responsibility, professionalism, and assuring the public. This paper addresses how these functions should be performed and assesses options based on three criteria: manageability, permanent professional- ism, and public confidence. Analysis of the range of police oversight mechanisms, other African cases, and Libe- ria’s situation leads us to the following conclusion:

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