The Pros And Cons Of Civilian Police Contractors

The United Nations has its own self-made problems recruiting police contractors. Latham says United Nations must better match attitudes and skills to tasks. To be able to do this, more standardized training is necessary. Training, however, takes time that current United Nations recruitment methods for United Nations police officers do not allow for. After the United Nations issues its request for officers, the member state must review the application and make sure it agrees with the mandate. Then it must identify individuals who can leave their current assignments to serve in the United Nations mission. Those individuals must have time to prepare themselves and brush up on skills such as first aid and languages. The United Nations has
As its task is often to demilitarize and reform local law enforcement agencies, it is important that civilian police officers should not be used by the United Nations to augment its military forces. The civilian police officer’s contingent is not mandated or trained to be a rapid exit strategy for military forces (Latham, 2001). Civilian police officers are usually tasked only with ensuring compliance with international standards. Although civilian police officers will work to establish law and order, its presence must not discourage the military from performing its task of ensuring a secure environment in which the civilian components can work. In other words, in the absence of a peaceful local authority, the military must retain primary responsibility for overall security. This includes tasks such as the arrest of criminals and riot control in areas of conflict(Latham, 2001). However, detention and legal proceedings should be the responsibility of local officials. Legal proceedings should be the responsibility other international organizations monitoring the proceedings. This delineation of tasks will allow Civilian Police to concentrate on its mission of ensuring that local law enforcement officers carry out their duties with full respect for universally accepted human rights and criminal justice standards (Latham, 2001). Although Civpol has made significant contributions to establishing peace in many missions, United Nations police mandates outstrip the availability of officers. For example, the missions in East Timor, Sierra Leone, and Kosovo are currently staffed at sixty-eight percent, eighteen percent, and sixty-six percent of authorized capacity respectively. Thus, as long as United Nations civilian police officers operations remain dependent on men and women recruited from active police forces, there will be a shortage of officers