ZP among worst performing countries on world police index
By Ernest Chanda(The Mast)
ZAMBIA ranks among worst performing out of 125 countries in the world on the World Internal Security & Police Index.
According to the 2023 World Internal Security and Police Index (WISPI), Denmark scores the highest globally while Zambia ranks 118th.
The WISPI is a collaborative effort between the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) and the International Police Science Association (IPSA).
It serves as a vital tool for assessing the effectiveness of police and other security providers in addressing internal security issues across 125 countries including Zambia, utilising a comprehensive framework of 12 indicators grouped into four distinct domains.
The WISPI focuses on four critical domains within the realm of internal security which are capacity, process, legitimacy, and outcomes.
Within the capacity domain, WISPI evaluates the resources allocated by each nation to bolster their internal security apparatus.
The process domain delves into the effectiveness with which these resources are utilised, ensuring a holistic view of security provision.
The legitimacy domain gauges public sentiment towards security providers, with a particular emphasis on law enforcement agencies.
The outcomes domain scrutinises the existing threats to internal security.
In terms of capacity, Zambia scored 0.20 while recording 0.17 in process.
In police legitimacy, Zambia scored 0.38, while in outcomes she scored 0.40.
“Denmark performed best on the Index, followed by Finland, and then Norway. There were only five non-European countries in the top 20. The United Arab Emirates was the highest ranked country from the MENA region and ranked 24th overall. Venezuela performed worst on the Index, followed by Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, and Madagascar,” reads the report in part. “North America and Europe were the two regions with the best average WISPI scores. SubSaharan Africa had the worst average score, followed by Central America and the Caribbean and South America. Many Middle Eastern countries performed well on the Index. The MENA region had the fifth best average regional score of the nine regions in the Index. In many countries, corruption and bribe payments to the police are still commonplace. The index average for bribe payments to police was 30 per cent, with more than 50 per cent of respondents admitting to having paid a bribe to police in 35 of the 125 countries in the Index.”