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Executive Summary
The National Coalition for Haitian Rights (NCHR) and the Washington Office
on Latin America (WOLA) have monitored police reforms in Haiti since the Haitian National
Police's deployment in June 1995. In January 1997, we published a comprehensive review of
the Haitian National Police (HNP), The Human Rights Record of the Haitian National
Police, jointly with Human Rights Watch/Americas. We identified problems with
training, management, supervision and excessive use of force, and urged the Haitian
government, police officials and international donors to address them promptly. This
report reviews the performance of the HNP during 1997. It identifies areas in which the
force has made progress, returns to problems raised in our January report which have not
been adequately addressed, and raises a number of new concerns that came to light this
year.
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Police Progress in 1997
The HNP gained experience and confidence in 1997, its second full year of operation. It
has become markedly less dependent upon the guidance of the United Nations Civilian Police
(CivPol). On management and administration issues, we noted several improvements. Most
regional and central leadership posts are now filled. There are departmental directors in
every region, police commissioners in all towns, and most of the inspector posts have been
assigned. Police are far better equipped than they were one year ago. Most police stations
in larger towns now have radio connections to police headquarters.
The Office of the Inspector General (IG), responsible for investigating
and sanctioning police abuse, has expanded significantly over the last year. High profile
cases, many police killings and serious police crimes appear to be investigated and
sanctioned quite efficiently. The director general and inspector general appear committed
to purging the HNP of abusive and criminal elements, and can do so more easily now under a
grant of authority from the Superior Council of the National Police which permits them to
dismiss officers on reasonable suspicion of inappropriate behavior. After a year in which
the inspector general's reporting on the cases of police abuse under investigation
declined in quality and frequency, the inspector general now appears to be committed to
producing comprehensive monthly reports in 1998.
Finally, training programs at the police academy have expanded. The basic course for new
recruits now lasts nine months, rather than four. And officers in the field are being
brought back to the academy for additional short-term skills training.
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 Continuing
Human Rights, Leadership and Management Problems
While the HNP has made real progress in these areas, serious problems identified in our
last report remain unresolved. Most problematical, police excessive use of force,
particularly beatings, continues at a worrisome level: HNP personnel killed some 46 people
between January and October 1997, about half of which appear to have been human rights
violations. This brings the total number of killings by the HNP since its first deployment
in June 1995 to at least 92 and possibly closer to 137, as many as half of which were
human rights violations. Beatings and other forms of mistreatment, while not systematic or
routine, increased in 1997 after dropping sharply in the second half of 1996.
HNP leadership and officers have evidenced a troubling lack of respect for
constitutional due process guarantees regarding searches, arrest warrants and pre-trial
detention (garde-à-vue). We find this cavalier attitude toward fundamental
constitutional protections, highlighted by the arrest and detention of a former head of
the HNP, Leon Jeune, in November 1997, alarming and unacceptable, and we urge immediate,
remedial action to enforce respect for these norms within the HNP itself.
While high-profile cases, many police killings and serious police crimes appear to be
investigated and sanctioned quite efficiently by the inspector general, he has not
sanctioned many cases of police beatings. The inspector general appears particularly
concerned by police criminality and is focusing resources on those issues. However, we
believe that neglecting police beatings on the grounds that they are relatively less
important sends a message of tolerance for abuse which may be contributing to its stubborn
persistence in the force today.
We are also concerned that the inspector general not reduce the already-stretched
resources now dedicated to investigating allegations of human rights violations in order
to conduct the administrative audits which are also part of the office's mandate. These
audits are important for improving the management of the HNP and generating the
accountability, responsibility, and control on the local level needed to reduce ongoing
human rights abuses, but should not be conducted at the expense of the inspector general's
investigation work.
While most supervisory posts have been filled, management systems that would hold them
accountable for the performance of their police units remain very weak. Commanders, chosen
on the basis of academic records and exams, have often turned out to have poor leadership
and administrative skills in the field. Communication within the force remains poor,
particularly in rural areas. Regular reports and information flows on institutional issues
are extremely limited. While the police are far better equipped than they were 18 months
ago, the administrative ability of the HNP to track, maintain and resupply equipment is
terrible. Maintenance remains appalling, with equipment, including guns, lying around in
unsecured piles.
Police arrogance toward the population continues, and the community policing programs
which might address that problem have not been a priority of the HNP leadership. The HNP
disbanded a community policing initiative in Cap Haïtien.
No progress has been made in judicial reform; as a result, police accused of killings and
other abuses are not tried, the judiciary plays no role in controlling police abuse of due
process protections, and officers are tempted to avoid the judiciary entirely by taking
the law into their own hands. Communication between the police and the judiciary on
procedures for arrest and detention of suspects is poor.
Finally, corruption in the force (principally from the growing drug trade) and the efforts
of political forces to gain influence over appointments and operations are becoming
ever-more-serious concerns of the HNP leadership. The HNP director general and inspector
general are attempting to deal with these problems by dismissing or sanctioning officers
they suspect of ties with criminal gangs and by consolidating communications and reporting
procedures through the chain of command.
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Conclusion
Haitian government officials and senior HNP leaders remain committed to creating a
professional and effective police force. The police force is clearly more experienced and
confident and its capabilities have improved over the last year. With ongoing
well-targeted and coordinated international assistance, the HNP should be able to continue
to strengthen itself as an institution. However, the HNP's ability to stand up to external
threats -- crime, anti-democratic provocation and attack, international drug traffickers,
and efforts to corrupt or politicize the police -- will depend on building and reinforcing
professional standards, solid administrative and disciplinary controls, and consolidating
a new code of ethics and way of doing business.
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Recommendations
(1) The HNP should demonstrate a policy of zero tolerance for all human rights abuses.
Specifically, the inspector general should seek to investigate and punish cases of
mistreatment and beatings as well as more serious police use of force. Such disciplinary
issues should be a priority for departmental and local HNP commanders, and their record in
implementing discipline should be a key factor in evaluating administrative audits and in
personnel reviews and promotions policies.
(2) While we agree that HNP administrative audits will be important for holding local
commanders accountable for supervision and discipline, the investigative function of the
IG should not be reduced. The IG plays such a central role in controlling police abuse
that we believe the government of Haiti, the HNP and the international community should
find the resources to increase the size of the IG so that it can reasonably perform both
functions.
(3) The IG must publish regular, detailed reports identifying the quantity, nature and
status of cases under investigation, including the names of police involved and the nature
and place of the alleged violation. We are greatly encouraged by the IG's expressed
commitment to publish such reports on a monthly basis in 1998.
(4) The HNP should immediately focus training and management resources on the need for
police officers to follow legal procedures when conducting searches or arrests, to fully
comply with the 48-hour detention limitation, and to obtain concrete, credible evidence to
support warrant requests and the detention of suspects beyond 48 hours. This training
should include the entire command structure of the HNP.
(5) The government of Haiti should fully fund the Office of the Protector of Citizens
(OPC). Haitian government authorities should strongly support the OPC's role in channeling
accusations of police abuse to the IG and judicial authorities and in overseeing internal
police investigations conducted by the IG. The government of Haiti should provide the OPC
with the resources to establish a civilian complaints review board with its own staff and
resources.
(6) HNP authorities should work with the Organization of American States / United Nations
Civilian Mission in Haiti (MICIVIH) and international donors to develop a long-term
strategy to evaluate community policing and should develop a program appropriate to the
Haitian context and oriented to address issues of police arrogance and crime fighting as
well as community relations. Concurrently, both police academy and ongoing field training
should emphasize the mission of the HNP to serve and protect the people and develop a set
of standards for community interaction, including patrols on foot or bicycle, school
visits, availability to the media, meetings with local organizations and authorities, and
working with neighborhood watches.
(7) International assistance programs should be targeted to assist the HNP with the
administrative command and control problems we have highlighted in this report.
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