Trust in the police and the militarisation of law enforcement in Latin America

ABSTRACT

Modern civilian police in Latin America has transitioned from an authoritarian past to a violent present. This institutional trajectory has evolved in the shadow of recurrent attempts by elected civilians to bring the armed forces back to domestic politics for partisan or personal gains. Current militarisation of law enforcement is another exploitation of the traditional supremacy of the armed forces over the police, which could have important repercussions on citizen trust in the police. Survey data from 28,874 adults in 18 countries were analysed to identify patterns of trust in both the armed forces and the police and to assess the impact of public support for the militarisation of law enforcement on citizen trust in the police. Results suggest that although both the military and the police are in general moderately appreciated by the citizenry, when criminal violence and political instability strike, public trust in the two security institutions starts to move in opposite directions. Subregional differences notwithstanding, the arrival of armed forces as iron-fisted guardians preventing society’s descent into violent chaos amidst insecurity and chaos typically damages police legitimacy. Declining trust in the police and increasing public support for the militarisation of law enforcement feed a downward spiral in high-crime environments that further discredits the police. Political implications of this legitimacy crisis are discussed, and policy solutions are recommended.

KEYWORDS:

• Trust in police
• police legitimacy
• militarization of law enforcement
• Latin America

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 While keeping the nomenclature adopted by Flores-Macías and Zarkin for their typology, we acknowledge their use of the terms ‘militarized’ and ‘paramilitary’ is unique. In common parlance, a paramilitary police force refers to a semi-militarised law enforcement agency whose institutional arrangements, practices, education, organizational philosophy, and mission are akin to those of a professional military but is not officially part of a country's armed forces. In their proposal, the paramilitarisation of the police is a transitional stage that mediates between the militarisation of the police and the constabularisation of the military in the continuum.

2 Data from Nicaragua and Venezuela must be interpreted with extra care because both countries were ranked poorly in political freedom and civil liberties by Freedom House; the sensitive nature of rating security forces in politically hazardous settings could have affected the validity and/or reliability of participants’ responses (Schneider, 2017). Also, Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico are federal countries with self-governing states or provinces; citizens in these territories are more likely to interact with officers and agents from state, provincial, or municipal police forces. The experiential meaning of ‘national police’ in these societies can be considerably different from that in countries with centralised police services.

3 Neither Costa Rica nor Panama was included in the analysis because they have no standing armed forces.