Rethinking Police Reform in Liberia: With Focus on Police Brutality

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume VI, Issue V, May 2022 | ISSN 2454–6186

Rethinking Police Reform in Liberia: With Focus on Police Brutality

Dr. Ambrues Monboe Nebo Sr. (Doctor of Sociology)
Department of Political Science, University of Liberia, Department of Sociology & Criminal Justice, African Methodist Episcopal University

Abstract: From a qualitative approach coupled with firsthand experience view as a form of ethnographic research, this paper rethinks police reform in Liberia with a focus on police brutality. Empirically, it established the veracity of rising police brutality in Liberia.
As its theoretical framework that explained the causes of police brutality, this article through assumption attributes the causes of police brutality in Liberia to the individual-level factors, organizational-level factors, and the public unawareness or lack of knowledge of the rules and procedures that guide police operations.
Under the organizational-level factors, it assumes that the failure of the reform to have infused behavior health training and emotional intelligence into the Basic Recruit curricula and advanced in-service training module that would have helped tackle the individual-level factors and educate the public about rules and procedures that guide police operations give rise to police brutality in Liberia.
It recommends an assessment survey that will inform the Liberia National Police decision to infuse BHT and EI in both BRT and advance in-service training at the Liberia National Police Training Academy and Training School.

Keywords: Human rights abuse, Liberia National Police, Police brutality, Police reform,

I. INTRODUCTION

As a notorious fact, before the reformation and restructuring of the Liberia National Police (LNP) as one of the resolutions of the Compressive Peace Accord that ended the 14 years of civil war in 2003 signed in Accra Ghana, police brutality was prevalent. Particularly, the defunct Special Operation Division was one of the subunits conspicuous for brutality against civilians and citizens (GlobalSecurity.org). This not only tainted the image of the LNP but also eroded the public confidence in law enforcement.
To repair the damage so critical to restoring public trust and confidence in the LNP, the reformation and restructuring was under the auspices of the Police component of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) was inaugurated on 13 July 2004 (UN, 2004). Police officers notorious for gross human rights abuses and violations were rooted out of the LNP, some that reached the age of retirement were given a special pecuniary package. A new breed of qualified Liberians was vetted and enrolled in Basic Police Recruit Course at the

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