Police training in stability ops

The U.S. Army War College‘s Strategic Studies Institute published last month a monograph authored by Colonel (Ret.) Dennis E Keller, entitled “U.S. Military Forces and Police Assistance in Stability Operations: The Least-Worst Option to Fill the U.S. Capacity Gap.”

Col. Keller gives a historical overview of U.S. foreign police training, where the “U.S. government is poorly prepared and lacks capacity.” However, as the author point out, such training of foreign police forces by the United States was successfully done through USAID from 1961 to 1974.

Keller describes the perception of policing in developing states:

In many societies of developing states, where local crime is on the increase, the local community members themselves may be skeptical of the value of community-based policing, preferring more-traditional authoritarian and repressive approaches to combating crime. (pg. 29)

And what is needed to develop an effective police force:

Developing an effective, local, community-based police depends more on the values and attitudes of the local police force than it does on the technical skills they possess. (pg. 29)

Perhaps lessons learned from successful training could be applied by the U.S. in stability operations in post-Castro Cuba if the island becomes a failed state during its transition to a democracy.

Click here to read the rest of the monograph.

Tagged as: foreign police training, post-Castro, post-Castro Cuba, strategic studies institute, U.S. Army War College, U.S. foreign police training, USAID