The Police Force should be concerned with increasing its professionalism

Nov 22, 2015 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The Guyana Police Force has a right and a duty to respond to criticisms about its work. But it does not have any obligation to be countering political criticisms of the government.
The former President of Guyana, Donald Ramotar was quoted in the media as saying that the army should be involved in the fight against crime. This is implicitly a suggestion and perhaps a criticism of the government’s policy approach towards crime-fighting. The former President’s statements can be interpreted as implying that at the policy level, the military should be enlisted to fight the present crime wave.
It is for the politicians to respond to this statement; not law officers. If the police feel that the suggestion implies that the police force lacks the manpower to fight crime effectively, they could respond by saying that help from the army is not needed at this time, because the police has adequate manpower. But everybody knows that the police force does not have enough manpower to deal with crime that is taking throughout the country. The police force is stretched thin; it needs more recruits.
The Guyana Police Force should not be responding to calls from politicians for the army to be involved in the fight against crime. It is for the politicians on the government side to respond and defend any policy limiting the involvement of the military in anti-crime operations.
The Guyana Police Force should not get involved in such a debate. It should use this new dispensation to create professional space for itself and not become involved in political squabbles.
By staying out of this debate about the involvement, the police can be said to be refusing to be drawn into a political squabble and would be reinforcing its professionalism.
Improving professionalism also involves the police force taking steps to demonstrate its political independence, especially when investigating cases in which there is likely to be imputations of political witch-hunting.
The police are reportedly also investigating a State Board member who is said to have received back payments of Board fees. The police are empowered to do so if there is strong prima facie evidence of fraud.
It is hard to see how the police can be investigating an alleged case of financial fraud and only the recipient’s name is being mentioned. That person obviously could not have paid himself. Someone would have had to have approved of the payment, signed the vouchers, and issued the cheque. The recipient surely could not have authorized these things. So how come no other names are being mentioned. Who authorized the payments? The police force must be careful that it is not drawn into political issues.
The police have also investigated other incidents of alleged fraud which took place under the previous regime, and it is amazing that in those instances where state property is alleged to have been the subject of fraudulent misappropriation, only the persons at one end of the transactions were charged. It takes more than one person in such cases to commit fraud. What about those who received or benefited from the alleged stolen asset? How come they were not charged? Are they going to appear as star witnesses against the accused?
You can bet that the Guyana Police Force will not venture an answer to those questions. Even if it did, it would perhaps use legalese to explain itself. Yet the same Guyana Police Force has allowed itself to be drawn into a political argument relating to the use of the army in crime-fighting.
This is the time for the Guyana Police Force to increase its professionalism, and it should do so in a manner that would build public confidence. It has to demonstrate to the public that it is properly insulated against political interference in its work.
Right now, the police force is under tremendous public pressure over the increase in crime. The public wants to be assured that the police are not going to be distracted by politics, but are going to do the best they can with the resources at their disposal to prevent crime
The debate about the army in the fight against crime is an old debate. The police have no need to get involved in that debate. Leave that to the politicians!

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