Colombia’s endemic violence stems from many sources and makes policing difficult. In addition, the police are among the most popularly reviled and persecuted civilian police forces in the world. The Colombian National Police (CNP) has been implicated in arbitrary detentions, injuries, disappearances, torture, and massacres. Nevertheless the country has strong formal attachments to democratic and legal traditions. Both external and internal mechanisms of police control existed prior to 1993. The reforms in 1993 resulted from growing public disquiet towards police abuses of human rights, corruption, failure to provide basic protection for ordinary citizens, and public outrage at a specific incident. The reform established an external review body named the National Commission for Police and Citizen Participation. However, ambiguity surrounded the extent of autonomy intended for the office. Political changes compounded this problem before the office had a chance to perform according to its objectives and prescribed functions. The President proposed in 1996 that the office close. Factors important to assessing this experience include the initial expectations, the clash with militaristic tradition, the speed of the reform, and the CNP reforms made during the same period. The analysis concludes that although the agency did not survive, its establishment set a precedent for greater sharing of police authority. The analysis also concludes that it is important to understand local contexts of politics and criminal justice when considering outcomes and not to make absolute and universal interpretations according to standards based on countries with different circumstances and traditions. Footnotes and 51 references