My Take | Warrior cops who now roam the US backyard

There is perhaps no better time than now for Americans to practise what they teach others.

No, I don't mean democracy, though that would be a good start too. It's community policing, or for starters, demilitarise your police forces. Average Americans and most foreigners are just shocked by the sight of thousands of "robocops" deployed in Ferguson and several other major cities.

The United States Agency for International Development should really consider sending some of its expert staff home. No, I don't mean it rudely as in "Yankees, go home".

USAid has been working over many years to train locals about responsible policing in war-torn countries. According to Foreign Policy, USAid has decades-old programmes that help countries such as El Salvador, Kosovo, Guatemala and Liberia to demilitarise their security forces and make them accountable for crimes such as extrajudicial killings.

Now is especially a good time to go home when the agency has been told to stop its undercover subversive work under the guise of democracy promotion in countries that don't want them.

One of its manuals asks foreign security forces such questions: "Does the police agency have a use of force policy? Are armed forces held legally accountable for their actions when performing law enforcement or public safety functions? Do [legal] bodies aggressively review and act upon complaints of misconduct?"