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The Politics of Police Image in Chile

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 November 2013

MICHELLE D. BONNER
MICHELLE D. BONNER*
Affiliation:
Michelle D. Bonner is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Victoria, Canada. Email: mbonner@uvic.ca.
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Abstract

The Carabineros de Chile played an active role in the repression and leadership of the Pinochet regime, yet today, the police force is one of the most respected institutions in Chile. Few post-authoritarian democracies have been able to restore such esteem for their police as quickly. But what does respect mean? This study analyses the narratives of approximately 50 police experts in Chile. It finds that police experts regard the positive image of the Carabineros as having more to do with fear and an effective communications strategy than police reform. It is important to understand how those Chileans most involved in policy discussions on policing interpret the reasons for respect, as their interpretations can shape the types of policing advocated or practised.

Spanish abstract

Los Carabineros de Chile jugaron un papel activo en la represión y liderazgo del régimen de Pinochet. Sin embargo, hoy la fuerza policial es una de las instituciones más respetadas en Chile. Pocas democracias post-autoritarias han tenido la capacidad de restaurar tal estima por su policía tan rápido. Pero ¿qué significa el respeto? Este estudio analiza las perspectivas de aproximadamente 50 expertos sobre la policía en Chile. Se observa que dichos expertos consideran que la imagen positiva de los carabineros tiene que ver más con el miedo y una efectiva estrategia comunicativa que con una reforma a la policía. Es importante mostrar de qué forma aquellos chilenos más involucrados en la discusión sobre políticas hacia la policía interpretan las razones de dicho respeto ya que tales percepciones pueden moldear los tipos de prácticas policial que promueven.

Portuguese abstract

Os Carabineros de Chile desempenharam um papel ativo de liderança e repressão durante o regime de Pinochet. Entretanto, esta força policial é uma das instituições mais respeitadas no Chile atual. Poucas democracias pós-autoritárias conseguiram restaurar tal apreço por suas forças policiais tão rapidamente. Mas o que significa respeito? Ao analisar as narrativas de aproximadamente cinquenta especialistas do tema policial no Chile, este artigo constata que a imagem positiva dos carabineros é avaliada como estando mais relacionada ao medo e com uma estratégia de comunicação eficaz do que com a reforma da polícia. A interpretação sobre as razões por este respeito pelos chilenos mais envolvidos com as discussões acerca das políticas de policiamento é importante, uma vez que suas leituras podem moldar os tipos de policiamento defendidos ou praticados.

Keywords

policepolice reformcommunicationsframingChilepolicíareforma policialcomunicacionesencuadramientoChilepolíciareforma policialcomunicaçõesconcepçõesChile
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 45 , Issue 4 , November 2013 , pp. 669 - 694
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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References

1 Latinobarómetro, Informe Latinobarómetro 2011, p. 48, available at www.latinobarometro.org/latino/LATContenidos.jsp.

2 ‘El prestigio de Carabineros cae al suelo durante la administración de Piñera’, El Mostrador, 23 March 2012, available at www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/pais/2012/03/23/el-prestigio-de-carabineros-cae-al-suelo-durante-la-administracion-pinera/. Although the proportion of the population that has confidence in the Carabineros dropped from 58.5 per cent in 2010 to 47.1 per cent in 2011, it is still higher than the average for Latin America. The fall in confidence may reflect the police response to student protests in 2011, which was widely criticised as repressive.

3 Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile (Departamento de Estudios, Extensión y Publicaciones), El Congreso Nacional en las encuestas de opinión pública 1990–2002 (Santiago, Nov. 2002).

4 Frühling, Hugo, ‘Police Legitimacy in Chile’, in Tyler, Tom R. (ed.), Legitimacy and Criminal Justice: International Perspectives (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2007), pp. 115–45Google Scholar; ‘Police Reform and the Process of Democratization’, in Frühling, Hugo, Joseph Tulchin and Heather Golding (eds.), Crime and Violence in Latin America: Citizen Security, Democracy, and the State (Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2003), pp. 15–44Google Scholar; and ‘Las estrategias policiales frente a la inseguridad ciudadana en Chile’, in Frühling, Hugo and Candina, Azun (eds.), Policía, sociedad y estado: modernización y reforma policial en América del Sur (Santiago: CED, 2001), pp. 13–38Google Scholar; Dammert, Lucía, ‘From Public Security to Citizen Security in Chile’, in Bailey, John and Dammert, Lucía (eds.), Public Security and Police Reform in the Americas (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2006), pp. 58–74Google Scholar.

5 Dammert, Lucía, ‘Police and Judicial Reform in Chile’, in Uildriks, Niels (ed.), Policing Insecurity: Police Reform, Security, and Human Rights in Latin America (Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2009), pp. 151–68Google Scholar; Fuentes, Claudio A., Contesting the Iron Fist: Advocacy Networks and Police Violence in Democratic Argentina and Chile (New York: Routledge, 2005)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 Polls on Chilean confidence in the police were not conducted during the Pinochet regime, so it is not possible to compare changes in levels of confidence before and after the transition. However, as will be discussed later, the Caso de las Degollados (Case of the Slit Throats) is widely considered to have significantly dented the public and military's support for the Carabineros just prior to the transition.

7 There is an expansive literature on the relationship between narratives and policy-making. See Sikkink, Kathryn, Ideas and Institutions: Developmentalism in Brazil and Argentina (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991)Google Scholar; Schram, Sanford F. and Niesser, Philip T. (eds.), Tales of the State: Narrative in Contemporary U. S. Politics and Public Policy (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1997)Google Scholar; and Roe, Emery, Narrative Policy Analysis: Theory and Practice (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1994)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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9 Bal, Mieke, Death and Dissymmetry: The Politics of Coherence in the Book of Judges (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1988)Google Scholar.

10 Explicit and implicit police knowledge of what is expected of the police has been shown by a number of authors on policing to affect the discretionary choices made by police officers. The most cited example is della Porta, Donatella and Reiter, Herbert (eds.), Policing Protest: The Control of Mass Demonstrations in Western Democracies (Minneapolis, MN: Minnesota University Press, 1998)Google Scholar.

11 Bonner, Michelle D., Policing Protest in Argentina and Chile (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, forthcoming)Google Scholar.

12 Hinton, Mercedes S. and Newburn, Tim (eds.), Policing Developing Democracies (London: Routledge, 2009)Google Scholar; Uildriks, Niels (ed.), Policing Insecurity: Police Reform, Security, and Human Rights in Latin America (Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2009)Google Scholar; Bayley, David H., Changing the Guard: Developing Democratic Police Abroad (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006)Google Scholar.

13 Bayley, Changing the Guard, p. 23.

14 Tankebe, Justice, ‘Public Confidence in the Police: Testing the Effects of Public Experiences of Police Corruption in Ghana’, British Journal of Criminology, 50 (2010), p. 297CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Also see World Bank, World Development Report 2011 (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2011)Google Scholar.

15 Tankebe, ‘Public Confidence in the Police’, p. 311.

16 Beetham, David, The Legitimation of Power (Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press International, 1991), pp. 6–13CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Tyler, Tom R. (ed.), Legitimacy and Criminal Justice: International Perspectives (New York: Russell Sage, 2007)Google Scholar.

17 Tankebe, ‘Public Confidence in the Police’, p. 312.

18 For an analysis of how polls can construct police legitimacy, see Ellison, Graham, ‘“Reflecting All Shades of Opinion”: Public Attitudinal Surveys and the Construction of Police Legitimacy’, British Journal of Criminology, 40: 1 (2000), pp. 88–111CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

19 Latinobarómetro, Informe Latinobarómetro 2011, p. 29.

20 Eaton, Kent, ‘Paradoxes of Police Reform: Federalism, Parties, and Civil Society in Argentina's Public Security Crisis’, Latin American Research Review, 43: 3 (2008), pp. 5–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

21 Frühling, ‘Police Reform and the Process of Democratization’, pp. 36–8.

22 Ibid., p. 38.

23 Fuentes, Contesting the Iron Fist, pp. 77–9; Portales, Universidad Diego, Informe anual sobre derechos humanos en Chile 2003: hechos de 2002 (Santiago: Universidad Diego Portales, 2003)Google Scholar.

24 Observatorio Ciudadano, ‘¡Alto Ahí! Basta de Violencia Policial: campaña para poner término a violencia de las policías’, available at www.observatorio.cl/sites/default/files/biblioteca/la_violencia_policial_en_chile%202008.pdf. These cases include only those from the metropolitan region of Santiago and regions IV, V and VI.

25 ‘Ex presidentes de la Fech piden al gobierno terminar con “institucionalización de la violencia”’, El Mostrador, 29 Aug. 2011, available at www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/pais/2011/08/29/ex-presidentes-de-la-fech-piden-al-gobierno-terminar-con-%E2%80%9Cinstitucionalizacion-de-la-violencia%E2%80%9D/; Centro de Derechos Humanos, Universidad Diego Portales, Informe anual sobre derechos humanos en Chile 2011 (Santiago: Ediciones Universidad Diego Portales, 2011)Google Scholar, chap. 2; Radio Cooperativa, ‘Amnistía Internacional: violencia de Carabineros está llegando a un nivel “grave”’, 27 Aug. 2012, available at www.cooperativa.cl/amnistia-internacional-violencia-de-carabineros-esta-llegando-a-un-nivel-grave/prontus_nots/2012-08-27/203505.html.

26 Munck, Gerardo and Bosworth, Jeffrey A., ‘Patterns of Representation and Competition: Parties and Democracy in Post-Pinochet Chile’, Party Politics, 4: 4 (1998), pp. 471–93CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Stern, Steven J., Reckoning with Pinochet: The Memory Question in Democratic Chile, 1989–2006 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

27 Many studies of Chileans’ respect for the Carabineros have been conducted by the centre-right Chilean think tank CEP, although the Ministry of the Interior, the Universidad Diego Portales and Latinobarómetro also conduct similar polls. These polls receive a significant amount of media coverage. For greater qualitative analysis on the subject, see Frühling, ‘Police Legitimacy in Chile’, pp. 115–45.

28 Universidad Diego Portales, ‘¿Un amigo en su camino? Confianza en Carabineros’, 2 Sep. 2011, available at www.encuesta.udp.cl/2011/09/%C2%BFun-amigo-en-su-camino-confianza-en-carabineros/ (see PDF file at end of article).

29 Most interviewees wished to remain anonymous. For this reason I list here only the names of the organisations from which I interviewed at least one person: Carabineros de Chile, Investigative Police, Ministry of the Interior, National Prosecutor's Office, Corporación Nacional de Desarrollo Indígena (National Indigenous Development Corporation, CONADI), Christian Democratic Party, Renovación Nacional (National Renewal, RN), Socialist Party, Communist Party, Corporación de Asistencia Judicial (Judicial Assistance Corporation, CAJ), Colegio de Profesores (Teachers' Union), Federación de Estudiantes de Chile (Student Federation of Chile, FECH), Fundación de Ayuda Social de la Iglesias Cristianas (Christian Churches Social Assistance Foundation, FASIC), Corporación de Promoción y Defensa de los Derechos del Pueblo (Corporation for the Promotion and Defense of the People's Rights, CODEPU), Amnesty International in Chile, ANDHA Chile a Luchar, Corporación Humana, Corporación Participa, Corporación Opción, Paz Ciudadana, Centro de Derechos Humanos at the Universidad Diego Portales, Centro de Estudios en Seguridad Ciudadana (Centre for Studies in Citizen Security, CESC), Centre for Justice Studies of the Americas, Ford Foundation, Centro de Estudios del Desarrollo (Centre for Development Studies, CED), Observatorio Ciudadana, Colegio de Periodistas de Chile (Journalists' College of Chile), TV stations Chilevisión and Megavisión, newspapers La Nación, El Ciudadano and The Clinic, Asuntos Públicos (online magazine), Claudia Lagos (journalist and author of El diario de Agustín), Agencia EFE (Chile, Spanish news agency), and former journalists for newspapers El Mercurio, La Tercera, La Hora, Hoy, Las Últimas Noticias and Metropolitan, for magazines ¿Qué Pasa?, Siete + 7, Siete, El Mostrador (online newspaper) and CIPER Chile (online magazine), and for Radio Chilena.

30 There are two centralised police forces in Chile, the Carabineros and the Investigative Police. The Carabineros are a uniformed and militarised police force stationed throughout the country. Their primary responsibilities are crime prevention, investigation of minor crimes and maintaining public order (traffic and crowd control). The Investigative Police is a smaller civilian police force that is not as widely represented throughout the country. It primarily investigates more serious crimes such as drug trafficking and organised crime. The Carabineros were more tightly integrated into the military regime than were the Investigative Police.

31 My definition and use of frame analysis draws heavily from the work of Benford and Snow. See Benford, Robert and Snow, David, ‘Framing Processes and Social Movements: An Overview and Assessment’, Annual Review of Sociology, 26 (2000), pp. 611–39CrossRefGoogle Scholar; ‘Master Frames and Cycles of Protest’, in Morris, Aldon and McClurg, Carol (eds.), Frontiers in Social Movement Theory (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992)Google Scholar; and ‘Ideology, Frame Resonance and Participation Mobilization’, in Klandmans, Bert, Kriesi, Hanspeter and Tarrow, Sidney (eds.), From Structure to Action: Social Movement Participation Across Cultures (Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 1988)Google Scholar.

32 Universidad Diego Portales, ‘¿Un amigo en su camino?’.

33 Interview with anonymous communications officer, Ministry of the Interior, Santiago, 18 June 2009.

34 Interview with Víctor Salas, photojournalist for EFE, Santiago, 2 July 2009.

35 Interview with anonymous member of CED, Santiago, 18 June 2009. These are the views of the interviewee and not necessarily those of the organisation.

36 Interview with Mayra Feddersen, Centro de Derechos Humanos, Universidad Diego Portales, Santiago, 22 June 2009.

37 Transparency International, ‘Global Corruption Barometer 2009’, available at www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/gcb/2009.

38 Hinton, Mercedes S. and Newburn, Tim, ‘Introduction: Policing Developing Femocracies’, in Hinton, and Newburn, (eds.), Policing Developing Democracies, p. 19Google Scholar.

39 Transparency International, ‘Global Corruption Barometer 2009’.

40 Carabineros de Chile, ‘Si eres extranjero’, www.carabineros.cl/sitioweb/web/verSeccion.do?cod=235&codContenido=471 (accessed July 2012, no longer available).

41 Pedro Ramírez, ‘Paco-ladrón: delincuentes de uniforme’, CIPER Chile, 20 Nov. 2007, available at http://ciperchile.cl/2007/11/20/paco-ladron-delincuentes-de-uniforme/, p. 2.

42 Interview with Pedro Ramírez, journalist at CIPER Chile, Santiago, 14 July 2009.

43 On the latter case, see Pedro Ramírez, ‘Paco-ladrón’, p. 1.

44 Ibid., p. 11.

45 Interview with Pedro Ramírez, 14 July 2009.

46 Interview with Jorge Molina, El Mostrador, Santiago, 3 July 2009.

47 Interview with Sergio Laurenti, executive director of Amnesty International in Chile, Santiago, 16 June 2009.

48 Interview with anonymous member of CODEPU, Santiago, 10 June 2009.

49 Interview with anonymous journalist, Megavisión (TV), Santiago, 12 June 2009.

50 Interview with anonymous member of CED, Santiago, 18 June 2009. These are the views of the interviewee and not necessarily those of the organisation.

51 Interview with anonymous member of CODEPU, Santiago, 10 June 2009.

52 Policzer, Pablo, The Rise and Fall of Repression in Chile (Notre Dame, IL: University of Notre Dame Press, 2009), p. 90Google Scholar.

53 Ibid.

54 They were returned to the Ministry of the Interior only in 2011.

55 Ibid.

56 Frühling, ‘Las estrategias policiales’, p. 18.

57 Dammert, ‘Police and Judicial Reform in Chile’, p. 156.

58 Interview with José Mora Quevedo, Communications Department, Carabineros de Chile, Santiago, 19 June 2009.

59 Interview with communications officer, Colegio de Profesores, Santiago, 15 July 2009.

60 Observatorio Ciudadano, ‘La violencia policial en Chile’, Documento de Trabajo no. 7, Dec. 2008, p. 20; Fuentes, Contesting the Iron Fist, p. 59.

61 Ibid., p. 58.

62 Ibid., p. 59.

63 Community policing itself has been described by scholars as a form of public relations. See, for example, Maguire, Edward R. and Wells, William, ‘Community Policing as Communication Reform’, in Giles, Howard (ed.), Law Enforcement, Communication, and Community (Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishers, 2002) pp. 33–66CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Ross, Jeffrey Ian, ‘Confronting Community Policing: Minimizing Community Policing as Public Relations’, in Kratcoski, Peter C. and Dukes, Duane (eds.), Issues in Community Policing (Cincinnati, OH: Anderson, 1995), pp. 243–60Google Scholar.

64 Interview with anonymous employee of the National Prosecutor's Office, Santiago, 15 July 2009.

65 Interview with Patricio Tudela, Investigative Police, via telephone to Santiago, 21 July 2009.

66 Dammert, ‘Police and Judicial Reform in Chile’, p. 156.

67 Policzer, The Rise and Fall of Repression in Chile, p. 120.

68 Interview with José Mora Quevedo, 19 June 2009.

69 Interview with Claudia Lagos, professor of journalism, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, 26 June 2009.

70 Stern, Reckoning with Pinochet, p. 67.

71 Interview with Juan Alejandro Sierra Deramond, Communications Department, Carabineros de Chile, Santiago, 19 June 2009.

72 Interview with José Mora Quevedo, 19 June 2009.

73 The only criticism raised by more conservative police experts, or by those describing the position of the political Right, was that sometimes citizens unfairly criticise the police for not providing enough security, even when the crime rate in their neighbourhood might be low. Interviews with anonymous members of the CED, Santiago, 18 June 2009, and Renovación Nacional, Santiago, 7 June 2009.

74 Frühling, ‘Las estrategias policiales’, p. 20.

75 Interview with Sergio Laurenti, 16 June 2009.

76 Interview with Luis Cortés, lawyer for FASIC, Santiago, 9 June 2009.

77 Frühling, ‘Police Legitimacy in Chile’; El Mercurio online, ‘Encuesta CEP: Carabineros elegida la institución mejor evaluada de 2008’, 8 Jan. 2009, available at www.emol.com/noticias/nacional/detalle/detallenoticias.asp?idnoticia=338812; Cooperativa.cl, ‘Encuesta de Paz Ciudadana registró baja en nivel de victimización’, 22 Oct. 2009, available at www.cooperativa.cl/prontus_nots/site/artic/20091022/pags/20091022114824.html; Gobierno de Chile (Ministry of the Interior, Division of Public Security), Encuesta de percepción y evaluación del Plan Cuadrante de Seguridad Preventiva de Carabineros de Chile en comunas de las regiones I, II, III, VII, IX 2007 (Santiago, Jan. 2009), available at http://centroestudios.carabineros.cl/docs/Evaluacion_PCSP_Ministerio_Interior.pdf.

78 Interview with anonymous member of CODEPU, Santiago, Chile, 10 June 2009.

79 Frühling, ‘Police Legitimacy in Chile’, p. 115.

80 Dammert, ‘Police and Judicial Reform in Chile’, p. 160.

81 The term ‘public security’ is also used. Both terms refer to reducing crime; the method advocated varies between and within those groups supporting the use of each term.

82 Léon-Dermota, Ken, And Well Tied Down: Chile's Press Under Democracy (Westport, CN: Praeger, 2003), p. 138Google Scholar.

83 For a very interesting and detailed account of Agustín Edwards' role in the establishment of citizen security as a central issue in Chile, see Marcela, Ramos A. and Guzmán de Luigi, Juan A., La guerra y la Paz Ciudadana (Santiago: LOM, 2000)Google Scholar.

84 Léon-Dermota, And Well Tied Down, p. 157.

85 Ibid.

86 Interview with an anonymous ex-journalist for El Mercurio, Santiago, 6 July 2009.

87 Léon-Dermota, And Well Tied Down, p. 161.

88 Human Rights Watch, The Limits of Tolerance: Freedom of Expression and the Public Debate in Chile (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1998)Google Scholar.

89 Interview with journalist for La Nación, Santiago, 15 June 2009.

90 Michelle D. Bonner, ‘Protest and Police “Excesses” in Chile: The Limits of Social Accountability’, paper presented at the International Political Science Association conference, Santiago, 12–15 July 2009.

91 Frühling, ‘Police Legitimacy in Chile’, p. 116.

92 See, for example, Domedel, Andrea and Peña y Lillo, Macarena, El Mayo de los Pingüinos (Santiago: Ediciones Radio Universidad de Chile, 2008)Google Scholar; and Bonner, Policing Protest in Argentina and Chile.

93 Interview with Federico Huneeus, president of FECH, Santiago, 17 June 2009.

94 Indeed, the growth of police communications departments in Britain, Canada and the United States has led some scholars to raise concerns about the potential impact on police accountability. Mawby, Rob C., Policing Images: Policing, Communication and Legitimacy (Portland, OR: Willan, 2002)Google Scholar.

95 Hugo Frühling, ‘Police Legitimacy in Chile’.

96 Ibid., p. 116.

97 Interview with Catalina Céspedes, Division of Public Security, Ministry of the Interior, Santiago, 17 June 2009.

98 This is an issue explored more deeply by Guillermina Seri in her book Seguridad: Crime, Police Power, and Democracy in Argentina (New York and London: Continuum, 2012).