In divided societies, the police tend to be closely aligned with the dominant social group and their actions focus on maintaining state security rather than providing routine policing services. As a consequence, policing often becomes a key axis of conflict and efforts to reform the police are central to the process of conflict resolution. The Patten Report reforms, for example, were a crucial part of the peace process in Northern Ireland and have been widely viewed as a success. However in other divided societies where police reform may comprise part of a peacekeeping intervention or international aid program, the impact of ‘security sector reform’ measures tends to be less clear-cut, partly because of the scale of the challenges involved, and also because of the difference in the priorities of the ‘donor’ and the host societies.