1. Thread: This week, unrelated to but coinciding with the crisis of racism & police violence in the US on which many incredible scholars are & have been working for years e.g. @hakeemjefferson @VeslaWeaver @meganfrancis @JennMJacksonPhD @jonmummolo (follow #RaceAndJusticeConvo)
2. we released the final report of the @IOMIraq + @YaleLawGLC study on perceptions of police in #Iraq. A few thoughts on the implications for police reform in the aftermath of recent (or still ongoing) state violence & repression in my personal capacity … iraq.iom.int/publications/p… 
3. Iraq is a hard case for police reform due to its history of authoritarianism, US-supported police militarization post-2003 (see Robert Perito), al-Qaeda then ISIS insurgencies, & recurring protests over government corruption & human rights violations usip.org/publications/2…
4. These challenges make Iraq an important case to assess the potential efficacy of police reform interventions including "community policing" that have had some success in very different contexts including the US (@peyton_k @michaelsierraa @DG_Rand pnas.org/content/116/40…) & ...
5. Liberia (@robert_a_blair @sabrinamkarim @bsmorse bit.ly/37419i3). But conflict has made it difficult to conduct safe & ethical research in Iraq, so we don’t know very much about the impact of the various security sector reforms that have been attempted since 2003.
6. IOM has been implementing a community policing program in Iraq since 2012 & the introduction of this program into 3 new communities in 2019 provided an opportunity to measure local public opinion before & after. Methods note: This is *not* an RCT & we do not make causal claims
7. In between the baseline & endline surveys, Iraq saw a powerful wave of protests calling for political & economic reforms, among other demands. Federal riot police, SWAT forces & unidentified militias used excessive & lethal force to disperse the protests, killing 600+ see @hrw
8. Importantly, Community Police are *unarmed* & did not participate in this horrific repression. CP officers visited protesters to provide water & pamphlets affirming the right to peaceful protest (حق التظاهر سلميا) & free speech, often marching with them
9. The occurrence of state repression during our study raises important concerns about research ethics & the ethics of foreign assistance & training to state security forces during civil unrest that I am grappling with in working papers. For now, one observation from Basra...
10. which was one of the centers of the protests. Changes in perceptions of *local* police (the police force that includes Community Police) between the two surveys in July-Aug 2019 & Dec 2019 were mixed with a few improvements (cooperation, effectiveness, feeling respected)...
11. but no change for others (trust) & declines in some (fairness). When we asked participants about the issues of greatest concern to them, we found a troubling increase in concern about violence against civilians (+14 pp) & arbitrary arrests by Iraqi security forces (+21 pp)...
12. likely driven by misconduct & human rights abuses of *federal*-level riot police & SWAT teams during the protests (not local police). Many ways to interpret these findings, but I think they suggest that civilians differentiate between the conduct of local & federal police ...
13. and form perceptions accordingly. Local police reform efforts, even when successful, can be counteracted by federal-level police repression. Security sector reform is extremely difficult when different security actors—local and federal—vary significantly in their social ...
14. ties to the communities where they work, incentives, training & chains of command. This research raises more questions than it answers e.g. Does misconduct by some officers or units spill over & taint perceptions of police + state legitimacy? Much more work & learning to do.
15. Finally, sincere thanks to a long list of IOM Iraqi & int'l staff who made our research possible & better. State violence in the US & Iraq (where security forces have received significant US aid & training) reminds us that human rights violations at home & abroad are linked.
