Styles Of Policing And Economic Development In African States

SUMMARY The notion that economic development in African states requires minimal levels of security has become widely accepted in the international development community. The first part of this essay explores the question of which types of security provision—professional all service policing or functionally specialized agencies—will have the greater impact on promoting and sustaining economic development. Reviewing the extant data and building on analyses by Jan van Dijk, I argue that functional policing styles and work, rather than full‐service policing work, are more important to address the major obstacle to economic development: grand corruption, organized crime, political violence, fraud and mismanagement by governments. The second part of the essay considers the experience of changing policing systems in Africa, which are composed of both functional and full‐ policing reforms. Despite sometimes substantial donor support, only South Africa and a few post‐conflict states (e.g. Sierra Leone and Liberia) have achieved some measure of success. Many of the political, social and economic contextual conditions that would support more substantive and sustainable police reforms are absent. © 2014 The Authors. Public Administration and Development published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.