Balancing the scale: Police officers’ perspectives on plural policing in the Solomon Islands

Law enforcement and the preservation of peace is largely regarded as the duty of state security service providers - the police. In the Solomon Islands contexts, this prevailing position is often paralleled (or contested) by the presence and legitimacy of a myriad of cultural and traditional systems and institutions that play key roles in the preservation of law and order and justice delivery. In such contexts, this gives rise to the presence and legitimacy of parallel systems of law and order maintenance and adjudication. The existence and legitimacy of such parallel systems challenge dominant Western positions, which align duties of policing and security provision primarily to states and their designated institutions. This chapter examines the perceptions of police officers on plural systems of policing in the Solomon Islands. It presents an overview of police officers’ views on the aptness and legitimacy of non-state policing and law and order bodies in the Solomon Islands, and support arguments on the necessity of adapting external models of policing to suit local contexts. It makes an important contribution to discourses on plural policing in developing country contexts as it examines perspectives from stakeholders that navigate a unique social position as police officers and members of the communities they serve