Uganda Police Force Memo

Policing of Political Demonstrations

October 11, 2005

Alex S. Vitale Ph.D.

Department of Sociology

Brooklyn College

avitale@brooklyn.cuny.edu

The goal of this memo is to assist the Uganda Police Force in establishing itself as an independent professional police force through the successful policing of demonstrations leading up to the March 2006 national elections. This goal can be accomplished by adhering to two important principles designed to enhance the quality of policing and increase public legitimacy. The first principle is police professionalism, which is meant to indicate that the police force is well trained, supervised, and independent of undue outside political influence in pursuing its law enforcement objectives. The second principle is transparency, which implies greater openness to the public and is essential to any democratic institution. I have developed a number of preliminary suggestions of how to implement these principles in relationship to the policing of demonstrations.

Police Professionalism

1) Proportionality

The job of an independent professional police force is to fight crime and maintain public order within a legal framework and independent of undue political influence. This means that the police must act in a reasonable, consistent, and even handed manner when confronted with protest activity. The best way to achieve this is through a strategy of proportionality. The police should respond to protest activity and other disorderly behavior in proportion to the illegality and disruptiveness of those activities. One of the ways to accomplish this is through a continuum of response model in which the level of police response is based on the threat posed by the protest activity. For example the level of force used to control a legal picket should be less than that used to control unpermitted street demonstrations, which should be less than that used to deal with crowds destroying property.

The goal of the police response to protest activity is a balancing act between enforcing the law, maintaining order, and minimizing conflict. This can be achieved through communication, de-escalation, and using the minimum amount of force necessary to create a stable situation. At times this requires that the police use their discretion in deciding whether or not to strictly enforce the law in a given situation. In some cases the best way to maintain order and reduce conflict is to allow limited amounts of minor illegal activity to occur. An example would be to allow a small group to have a march or picket without a proper permit as long as there is good communication with the police and there is no threat of an escalation of illegal activity or a significant threat to public safety. This may create some disruption of everyday life for members of the public, but this is to be expected in a democratic society and in the end is far less disruptive than an escalation of police and protestor violence.

A set of guidelines should be established that lay out these principles and provide more specific guidance about what levels of police enforcement activity are appropriate in response to different general types of protest activity. While no list can be exhaustive or replace the need for judgment by police supervisors, it sets a framework for that decision making process.

I can help develop detailed list of police responses in relationship to protest activity in consultation with police officials.

2) Training

Training should focus on two issues. The first is communicating the principles of proportionality to officers, so that they understand the principles that should underlie effective policing of protests.

Second, individual police officers should have training in the wide variety of policing methods that can be used to manage and if necessary control protest activity. The greater the variety and sophistication of police methods available the less likely it is that they will fell the need to resort to high levels of force to control disruptive protest activity.

I can help develop training protocols for a variety of police enforcement methods.

3) Supervision

Most decision making at medium and large scale demonstrations is made by supervisors; making their role central to the successful outcome of these events. To ensure effective supervision, line officers need to be organized into squads that can work together and be commanded by an individual supervisor, who may in turn take orders from higher level commanders. It should be made very clear to line officers that they are not to act independently of supervisory personnel, when they are present, and supervisors should work to maintain the cohesiveness of officers under their command to avoid a disorganized or unnecessarily confrontational approach.

Transparency

1) The Public

The more the public knows about the professional training and the politically neutral objectives of the police, the more likely they will be to view police crowd control measures as legitimate. To accomplish this, they must have access to information prior to and following the policing of political demonstrations.

In addition to communicating to the public through the press, there are also ways in which the police can communicate more directly with the public. One way to do this is to discuss the policing of political demonstrations at public meetings the police attend. The police can use situations where the police and the public come together to discuss crime or other local public safety matters to communicate their independent professional policing orientation to the public. One way to enhance this effort would be to produce a handout to the public that outlines the principles of proportional response and asks for the community’s help in insuring peaceful demonstrations through enhanced communication and respect for the rule of law by all parties involved.

2) The Press

One method of improving public perceptions of independence and professionalism is to give the press better access to information. Frequent press briefing prior to upcoming political rallies and demonstrations can be used to establish the professional agenda of the police in the minds of reporters before they witness and write about the policing of political demonstrations. The more the press understand the objectives of the police force, the more likely they will be to accurately report on their activities during protest events.

One way to advance this process is to make available to the press copies of the training guidelines that have been distributed to officers. This will allow them to see that professional training is being pursued and that politically neutral strategies for crowd control are not just being communicated to the public but also to the officers of the police force.  In addition, members of the press could be invited to witness some of the training exercise to demonstrate the increasing professionalism of the police force. These measures will enhance the possibility that when members of the press witness police enforcement action, they will view it as a coordinated professional response warranted by circumstances, rather than an arbitrary or capricious action.

3) Outside Monitors

In order to indicate to the public its commitment to independent professional policing, the police force should invite outside monitors to witness the policing of demonstrations. This could be done with the cooperation of the police force to insure the safety of monitors on the streets and to insure their access to high ranking police officials before and after any incident. The monitors could be offered distinctive clothing of some kind to identify themselves to police and demonstrators. The act of inviting and facilitating outside monitors would demonstrate openness and confidence on the part of the police.

There are many potential choices for outside monitors. The most obvious would be the Ugandan Human Rights Commission. Their semi-governmental status is helpful, in that they are well known to the public and the police. A more independent body might also be possible such as international human rights groups like Human Rights Watch or Amnesty International or domestic groups which could be identified in conjunction with the Ugandan Human Rights Network or The Foundation for Human Rights.