Administrative Reform in the Myanmar Police Force: Decision-Making and Community-Based Policing

Abstract

The ongoing administrative reform in the Myanmar Police Force (MPF) has included adoption of community-based policing as the main philosophy of the police department since 2012; however, the democratic values inherent in the community-oriented concept have stagnated under the military influences in Myanmar caused by political instability and armed conflicts among the ethnicities of the country. Many research reports reveal that the success of reform with community-based policing is highly dependent on reducing military influences and establishing the police department as an independent organisation. Subsequently, the problem of adopting community-oriented policing has become chronic under the existing democratisation process. By utilising Herbert A. Simon's decision-making study, the current study examined the decision-making process in community-based policing, and found that the problem of stagnation of democratic reform in the police department was caused by the nature of the MPF, cognitive limitations in the decision-making process, and value conflicts, rather than military influence.