No revolution for the police?
This article analyses projects carried out in the name of police reform and democratization in post-revolution Tunisia. The period following the departure of Ben Ali saw a series of readjustments within the security forces, notably following an opening to new sources of influence, emanating from security professionals organized in the form of unions or associations, or international players. Based on an analysis of the community policing project carried out by the UNDP and the Ministry of the Interior, the purpose of the article is to show that, without profoundly modifying the structures and standards governing the police, the enhancement of relations between police and citizen carried out in the name of the reform excludes the subaltern. Newly formed police unions further reduce the specter of political change by doing lobbying work to exclude police control and accountability from SSR. They manage, by taking over the discourses of the Security Sector Reform, to legitimize and strengthen their position as representatives of the police forces. The aim of the article is to analyze a process of change at work without presuming its outcome, by reinscribing it in its political temporality and the lines of tension around the definition of the terms of change within the police.