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© The Authors) 2018 H. B. Grant,
Police Integrity in the Developing World, SpringerBriefs in Criminology, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00413-2_6
Chapter 6The Not So Exemplary Example – Bangladesh National PoliceThis chapter is adapted and abridged from H. Grant,
SO Reilly, and S. Strobl (2019, forthcoming. The Role of Legitimacy in Police Reform and Effectiveness A Case Study on the Bangladesh National Police in Das, and D. Petersen (eds
). Proceedings from the International Police Executive SymposiumThe case example of Bangladesh exemplifies many of the challenges that we have been speaking about thus far with respect to policing in the developing world. The Bangladesh National Police is a very large force that is very strapped for necessary resources to be able to effectively police – both within the large urban center of cities like Dhaka to the very remote villages characteristic of the countryside. Bangladeshis a country characterized by both extreme poverty and high levels of corruption on the part of its police and other government services.
In
recent years, Bangladesh has also faced numerous religiously motivated murders of secular bloggers, activists, and members of the LGBT community (The
Economist 2016
). Unfortunately, these murders are coupled with an increase in other forms of violent extremist attacks that have contributed to an air of insecurity for many in the country. In 2007, the overall crime rate was 91.5 per 100,000 people, with property crimes being the most frequently reported (Kashem
2010
). The country also faces other forms of ethnic and politically motivated violence from diverse populations.
Within many ongoing and lengthy police reforms in collaboration with the Police Reform Program of the UNDP, the Bangladesh National Police have implemented a well-intentioned community policing program that included a training program with the support and resources of the Asia Foundation and the USAID. Although the levels and type of violence certainly make
any police reform challenging, it is likely that the very likely low levels of police legitimacy and collective efficacy are also contributing to its ineffectiveness despite uncharacteristically high support for the idea of community policing at all levels of the national police force (Grant
2014
).
