UN should supply an emergency police force for Haiti

Regardless of where they happen disasters have a number of common themes. One of these themes is the breakdown of law and order such as we are seeing now in Haiti.

One way to combat this problem could be to have a standby police force the members of which are contributed by the various countries in the UN. For example, if Canada were to ask the various police forces across to country to ask for volunteers who would be ready to respond at short notice when a disaster happened, say 1 officer for every 200 on the force. I am sure that Canada alone could easily come up with a force of 400-500 officers. These officers would be asked to be on call for a defined period, say 2 years. During this time they would undergo periodic training to enable them to work with other groups from different countries and would also get specialized training in disaster relief.

If even 10 percent of the countries of the world responded I am sure that a potential force of 10's of thousands of trained officers could be raised at short notice to help countries such as Haiti when disaster strikes. Since the majority of time these officers will be based with their home forces, this should not pose an undue burden on the countries involved. If such a force had been available and had been sent to Haiti within the first days after the earthquake, I am positive that many of the stories of looting and rape would not have occurred.