Georgia

This chapter focuses on police reform efforts in Georgia. After years of top-down police reform in Georgia, led by president Saakashvili, brutal violence in Gldani prison in 2012 generated public outcry against policing regimes in the country. The new government elected in the aftermath of the scandal promised sweeping changes. Georgian NGOs have been able to use this window of opportunity to challenge the new government to reduce its reliance on surveillance of political opponents and on militarized police units to contain antigovernment protests. New venues for collaboration between the ministry and civil society emerged from the process of drafting new police legislation. This experience became an important reference point for measuring the degree of police accountability to the public in the long term, even as civil society was gradually distanced from the Interior Ministry’s day-to-day work.