The Police, the State and the Congo Cop

This open access book offers the first full-length, empirical deep-dive into everyday policework in the Democratic Republic of Congo. At the same time, its findings go well beyond the DRC and Africa, ultimately providing a new, startlingly nuanced theoretical framework for understanding what police practice and reform efforts tell us about states anywhere in the world.

Following officers from the classroom to the station and the street, Michel Thill offers five narrative-driven chapters rich with historical detail and thick description that show how the police force, as an institution, struggles to coordinate practice with training, coercion with persuasion and reconciliation, and the need to make ends meet with the duty to serve the public. By delving into the convoluted repercussions of police reform, Thill identifies the tensions that shape everyday policework, thereby offering new ways of thinking about police reform while offering practical guidance for practitioners and policymakers.

The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Bloomsbury Open Collections Library Collective.

Michel Thill, PhD, is a researcher and project manager. He currently works as Senior Program Officer with swisspeace, and lives between Basel and London.