ABSTRACT
Serving God, the community, and the state: policing in Tuvalu
In this chapter we examine how police in Tuvalu negotiate a hybrid justice system where practices and policies have been changing. We found that police needed to adapt to sometimes conflicting relationships between religious authorities, customary authorities, the state, and the public. Drawing on interviews with police, community leaders, and religious leaders, we argue that discretionary practices characterise the way police negotiate these conflicts and the changing relationships between traditional authority and modern authority. Here we present arguments that suggest a need to rethink how police are trained for postcolonial societies where state authority and legitimacy are based on the cooperation and consent of customary and religious authorities.
