This article is included in the Autumn 2018 issue of Syria Notes.
For the past six years in Syria’s rebel-held northwest, the Free Syrian Police has tried to maintain law and order in amongst armed clashes and shifting alliances between rebel factions. Since its founding in 2012, the network of community police officers has been going after criminals and protecting civil institutions in areas of Idlib and Aleppo provinces where the rules are all too often determined by armed groups. The force’s approach to policing has been described as ‘policing by consent’: by building networks of trust among communities where the force works and, above all, refusing to carry weapons.
Read the full article online at Syria Direct.
Arrest of a suspected drug dealer in Ma’arat al-Nu’man, Idlib.
Photo: www.idlibfreepolice.org
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