As an important pillar of building sustainable peace after protractedviolent conflict, security sector reform (SSR) has the objective to preparestate security actors, who often have been active conflict participants,for work within the frameworks of democracy, adherence to human andcivil rights, and civilian rule. A major component of SSR is the re-trainingand re-education of local police to improve their relationship with thelocal communities. This relationship has often been severely strained byhuman rights abuses committed by police against community membersduring the conflict, and it continues to be put to the test in fragile post-accord environments by persisting high levels of violence. However,research on how to improve that relationship, particularly from abottom-up  perspective,  remains  scarce.  This  study  analyses  thedynamics of the relationship between the police and communities inthe transition period from war to peace in Colombia, a countrytormented by continued violence even after the signing of the 2016peace agreement that was to set an end to the country’s decades ofinternal conflict. Based on semi-structured interviews conducted duringthe fall of 2019, it applies the theoretical lens of the relational peaceframework that approaches peace in terms of relationships betweendifferent sets of interdependent actors. Thefindings indicate that therelationship between the communities and the police has not reachedsatisfactory levels of relational peace, suggesting a set-back in security-related peacebuilding. The paper concludes with recommendations,including from interviewees, on how to improve that relationship.