Stinkin Liberal in Egypt: September 2011

There is no doubt that when Egyptian activists called for mass protests on January 25th the symbolism of that date wasn't lost on all Egyptians. January 25th is national holiday in honor of the police, where former president Hosni Mubarak usually gave a speech and decorated fallen police officers posthumously. To many, the Egyptian police force was a symbol for all that was wrong with the Mubarak regime: corrupt, brutal and above the law. The death of Khaled Said, who was beaten to death at the hands of two police officers in the street six months earlier was on the minds of many who marched onto Tahrir square on that fateful day. If there was any doubt on how Egyptians felt about the police, such doubts were crushed on the "Friday of Anger" three days later, where in merely four hours the entire security apparatus of the Mubarak regime broke down, leaving the people to fend for themselves against thugs and looters.

After Mubarak's ouster, police reform became a priority in the eyes of most Egyptians, but due to political uncertainty and the incompetence of The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), so far the changes that occured within the ministry of interior has been cosmetic. The fact that the police still operates under the Egyptian emergency law, which has been in effect since Anwar Sadat's assassination and gives the police the ability to imprison any suspects without proper evidence or a trial, is a big concern. Some argue that it is impossible to root out corruption and brutality completely from the Ministry of Interior, and that by doing so there might be a risk of completely losing all sense of security, something that many Egyptians would rather avoid.

States of the former Soviet Union faced a similar problem with their polices forces after the fall of the USSR, and perhaps the most impressive and successful example of police reform took place in Georgia. Of course, it didn't hurt that they now have an elected president, Mikheil Saakashvili, who is Western educated and committed to nation-building and consolidation of liberal democracy.

The first thing they did was to form a new normative base for the ministry of interior according to the principles of international law and human rights protection. Fighting corruption was the priority of the ministry and accordingly a new structural unit was formed. The main aim of this unit is to expose the crimes conducted by state officials, including the representatives of their own unit. In 2005, 120 high-rank state officials are detained and arrested convicted in taking bribes. The Ministry paid special attention to protecting human rights; so it created the Human Rights Protection and Monitoring Main Division, which checks the record and the health condition of suspects, held in temporary detention cells. Since then no fact of mistreatment of prisoners has been reported in the temporary detention cells, which for decades have been a place of torture. The leadership of the Ministry keeps under strict control every violation of human rights by the police officers. After introducing human rights protection mechanism in the Ministry of Internal Affairs many police officers have been penalized for torture and other ill-treatment related crimes. In particular, 4 police officers were arrested, 13 were dismissed from work and 113 were put under investigation for mistreating detainees.

Of course, there can be no reform if the officers themselves weren't committed to reform. Recognizing the necessity of creation of professional and educated staff has attached special attention to the reform of police and security academies. The latter was liquidated and the academy of police was equipped with the newest devices and literature.The system of training and recruiting of police absolutely changed. Starting September 1st, 2005 the MIA together with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and other donors began realization of the projects of assistance to the Georgian police.

As a result of reforms, 87% of Georgian people have trust in the police (Only the Orthodox Church supasses that number). For comparison, the president's administration gets 57%, the rest of the government 56%. In the past the noted indicator was below 10%. Now a Georgian police officer receives a salary of $ 500-700 (which is higher than the national average), doesn’t take bribes, is polite and punctual.

Stephen Sestanovich, an influential Russia expert at the Council on Foreign Relations wrote on the merits of Georgia’s police transformation and advised Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to follow suit. “Only one political leader in any post-Soviet state has ever attempted this kind of institutional upheaval, and the comparison is an ironic one for Medvedev. For that leader is … Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia, who soon after becoming president in 2004 fired more than 80% of the country’s police officers…But however awkward the parallel may be, there are lessons in it for Medvedev. Saakashvili’s reform succeeded precisely because it was so radical.”

Below are pictures of several police buildings in Georgia. All new police stations are made as transparent as possible so that any passer-by could see what was happening inside.