ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the achievements and failures of the National Civilian Police project in El Salvador and considers what lessons it may carry for civilianization of internal security in other contexts. The international community provided unprecedented levels of technical assistance, training, on-the-job supervision, and material assistance to the new police force. Newly recruited cadets from the academy were rotated through short-term assignments as Auxiliary Transitory Police under close supervision and tutelage of United Nations Observer Mission in El Salvador police division personnel. The civilian government of Raul Alfonsin was able to civilianize police functions and circumscribe the military's involvement in domestic intelligence. There is a growing current of scholarly opinion which argues that civil-military relations can improve if militaries refocus their efforts on less politically-contentious national defense issues. Lesson from the Salvadoran experience is that considerable attention must be given to how the state will deal with the problem of crime during transition from one internal security regime to another.
