Image of a single cuff with a chain to be fixed to a wall, floor, ceiling, etc. Credit: Robin Ballantyne
Image of a single cuff with a chain to be fixed to a wall, floor, ceiling, etc. Credit: Robin Ballantyne
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The Deployment of Law-enforcement Equipment

Collaborative study with SIPRI and the Open Society Foundations, into the manufacture, trade and use of prison and policing equipment and weapons in Central Asia.

In recent years, Central Asia and the South Caucasus have seen a number of gradual trends in the development, transfer and use of law enforcement equipment, increasing the range of devices available to law-enforcement and security personnel. This has been partly spearheaded by changing international partners (China, Russia, and the United States), but it has also been influenced by the emergence of local sources of production, the opportunities generated by the acceptance that police and security personnel require the means for employing a graduated use of force – thus creating a market for new technologies – as well as the desire for reform. However, the increased availability and deployment of law enforcement equipment brings with it an inherent risk that without the proper
infrastructure in place, such as controls over the trade in such devices, clear use of force guidelines, and training, backed up by a robust monitoring and a judicial system capable and willing to hold perpetrators to account, police and security forces could use new technologies to wield excessive force, commit abuses, and reinforce authoritarian practices.

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