Tunisia: Understanding Conflict 2012 - Johns Hopkins School of ...

A Way Forward: Policy Reforms
At present, security reforms are floundering for lack of meaningful action. No matter how
the new constitution interprets democracy or Tunisian identity, there will still be major
hurdles to overcome in pursuit of a stable and accountable security force. Presented here
are just a few policy recommendations that would help achieve that end.
• Competitive retraining. Reforming police behavior is paramount to the
restoration of domestic security in Tunisia and thus to the well-being of the
country as a whole. Simply removing all those officers who served under the Ben Ali
regime would not solve the problem, not only because it would mean the creation of a
large group of disaffected and unemployed citizens, many of which would likely have
made honest public servants, but also because of the logistical difficulty of replacing
them all at once. Several countries, including Canada, Italy, and Finland, have offered
assistance in retraining, but the problem remains of how to implement training on
such a large scale, for tens of thousands of officers. That touches on the corollary
problem of the inflated size of the police force.
• Both problems could be partially solved through the implementation of a
competitive retraining program, one in which officers are eligible for retraining
in cohorts based inversely on seniority, allowing those with longer service history
more time to adjust to the new professional environment before competing for
retraining. The Interior Ministry, in coordination with elected officials, would
determine an ideal police force size, from which a passing rate for the retraining
would be derived, thus succeeding in both retraining officers, retaining those who are
best suited to the job, and reducing the size of the force to a more manageable
number. Ideally, professional development programs would help those who did
not pass to transition to alternate employment.
• Wage increases. The long-term gains from pay increases to low- and mid-level
police officers should make the policy cost-neutral or even positive, even though it
may appear more expensive in the short run. Substantial savings should have accrued
from the dissolution of the political police, and the gradual reduction in the size of the
administrative police outlined above should also cut program costs, even after
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